On April 10th Peru had Presidential elections. No candidate received a 50% majority and there will be a run off June 5th. There were 10 Presidential candidates. The left was led by Ollanta Humala who received 31% of the vote and Keiko Fujimori who received 23% of the vote. The three centrists candidates- Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, former President Alejandro Toledo, and Luis Castaneda Lossio, the former mayor of Lima- divided the political center.
Humala and Fujimori
The election is important because it is a classic Foro de Sao Paulo political event. Several years ago the Latin American radical leftists met and organized the Foro de Sao Paulo, with the total support of Lulu of Brazil, Castro of Cuba, and most communist parties of Latin America. The objective is take control of cities, states, regions, and nations through the ballot box, not through violent revolution. Google “Foro de Sao Paulo” for details. Also get a library copy of “The Foro de Sao Paulo, A Threat to Freedom in Latin America,” by Alejandro Pena-Esclusa, Mary Montes Edition, Bogota, Colombia (email).
Ollanta Humala, a former Army officer and leftish coup plotter, has been praised consistently by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. In this campaign Humala appeared to be a reasonable populist, strongly appealing to the Peruvian poor. He hired a professional political consultant group from Brazil. The World Bank estimates that 60% of Peru is poor. Professor Hayek in his important book “The Road to Serfdom” warned of political movements like the Foro de Sao Paulo. Thomas Jefferson warned of “mob rule” or “Demobracry” in lieu of Democracy. The issue is how will a President Humala actually govern? His father is a communist who advocates release of all political terrorists; his brother was convicted of murder and kidnapping; and his mother wants all homosexuals shot.
In the past decade Peru has had low inflation, job formation, and solid economic growth. In relative terms the growth has not benefited the masses as quickly as expected. Humala promises radical change. Yet in other nations where the radical promises have projected a candidate to power, the result has been economic failure. Chavez in Venezuela and Castro in Cuba are examples of economic disaster.
On June 5th there will be a runoff between Humala and Kieko Fujimori. The predictable result will a tragedy for Peru and the Americas. The Foro de Sao Paulo is on the march, a dangerous march to rise expectation of the masses, with little or no chance of realizing the rising expectations.
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