Peru
Alan Garcia has been elected President of Peru for the second time in his life. His previous term was from 1985-1990. It was a total disaster. Peru is the only country in the region to have a truth commission investigate human rights crimes against elected governments. The others all saw those horrors under dictatorships. Garcia was one of the elected leaders. During his term, the government tolerated or encouraged death squads that killed peasants more or less indescriminately on the assumption that they were part of the Shining Path. The violent instability in the country combined with Garcia’s hamfisted attempts at nominally leftist economics ruined the country’s economy, with inflation topping 7,000 percent at one point during his rule.
News accounts this morning show Garcia defeating his Hugo Chavez styled challenger 55-45. Ollanta Humala, Garcia’s challenger is a former army officer, like Chavez, and a left nationalist who is calling for a “peaceful” revolution of the poor against the rich, also much like Chavez. His party will have the largest number (but not a majority) of seats in the national legislature. The next couple of years ought to be really interesting in Peru.
It must have been really fun to be an upper middle class or wealthy voter in this election.
