Weekly Report - 24 February 2011 (WR-11-08)

The most striking debate in the 2011 presidential election campaign appears to be over the 2006 presidential election campaign. The candidate for the left-wing coalition Gana Perú, Ollanta Humala, is accusing the frontrunner in the contest, former president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), of using his position to seek assistance from the US embassy in Lima to stage a defamation campaign to prevent him from coming to power in 2006. Humala, who narrowly lost out to Alan Garcí­a in 2006, is basing his claims on a Wikileaks diplomatic cable from the US embassy to try and transform his lacklustre campaign ahead of the 10 April contest. The story has got him back in the headlines but whether it erodes some of Toledo's support and boosts his own is a moot point.