Weekly Report - 19 May 2011 (WR-11-20)

PERU | Crunch time. As election day draws closer and little separates Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori, the campaign has reached an odd juncture where the two presidential candidates contesting the run-off on 5 June are intensifying their efforts to persuade voters to make a quasi-religious leap of faith given the huge amount of doubt and distrust surrounding their intentions. Barely a day goes by without Humala having to dissociate himself from Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. He is becoming more and more emphatic. He now professes to have made a "mistake" for forging a close rapport with Chávez when he ran for the presidency in 2006. "I never wanted to apply a model like that, but I was not sufficiently convincing in telling people this. I want people to know we will not repeat the Chávez model," he said.
Humala denied this was a tactic to win election, insisting that he disagreed with indefinite re-election, exchange rate controls and interventionism, and would respect freedom of the press, but polls suggest he has failed to convince about half of the electorate. As such he has redoubled his attacks on Keiko. "Everyone knows the true candidate is Alberto Fujimori… (who) would govern Peru from prison." He says his main priority would be combating corruption, which was endemic under Fujimori: "as if we have forgotten this man is a murderer and a thief who stole US$6bn and fled the country with more than 40 suitcases like Ali Baba."
Keiko is keeping her calm better than Humala, but then the polls do show her on an upwards trajectory. She contracted the former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani this week as an adviser to help formulate public security programmes.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 465 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial