Post by vgambler33 on Jan 16, 2006 16:00:00 GMT -5
Left-Leaning Candidate Surges in Peru By MONTE HAYES, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 14, 3:44 PM ET
LIMA, Peru - When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race.
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Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America — or, worse, a military dictator in the making.
Two days later at a news conference in Lima, Humala urged Peru's leftist parties to join his "nationalist project" and laid out policies that would make fundamental changes in Peru's free-market economy.
Wearing a green military-style jacket and an Andean Indian scarf, Humala also proclaimed deep admiration for the 1968-75 leftist dictatorship of Peruvian Gen. Juan Velasco, who carried out a largely failed agrarian reform, nationalized industries and forged close military ties with the Soviet Union.
"You could question his macroeconomics, but Velasco gave dignity to the people who lived in the countryside," Humala said, referring to Velasco's reforms, which freed rural workers from serf-like conditions on large estates.
Humala, 43, has risen strongly in opinion polls heading toward April's presidential election, moving into a tight contest with conservative former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores.
Public opinion analysts say his rapid rise — from 5 percent in August to 23 percent in December — is based largely on voters' disgust with Peru's political parties, which are widely viewed as corrupt.
Humala's economic plans unsettle many in the middle and upper classes. And some voters worry that members of his Indian-descended family are avowed racists and ultranationalists. His father describes himself as a Marxist, expresses admiration for Hitler and believes Peru's Indians and mestizos should rule. Humala insists he does not share their extremist beliefs.
Many Peruvians, especially the poor majority who feel they have not participated in Peru's solid economic growth of recent years, see Humala as the tough military man the country needs to punish the corrupt and impose order.
Humala views himself in the same light.
"Due to my military experience I believe we need discipline in the country, discipline and order," he told The Associated Press in an interview, sitting beneath a map of Peru at his spartan campaign headquarters. "What we have in Peru is the law of the jungle. Corruption abounds. The Peruvian state is corrupt and must be reinvented."
Humala burst into the spotlight when he and his brother, Antauro, a former army major, led some 70 followers in a short-lived military rebellion in October 2000, a month before President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic 10-year regime collapsed in a corruption scandal. Humala was later pardoned by Congress.
He has taken on the mantle of the anti-establishment newcomer, a role that Fujimori, a university dean, played to the hilt to get elected in 1990. Current President Alejandro Toledo, a close U.S. ally who is barred from running again, also ran as an outsider in 2001, becoming the country's first elected leader of Indian descent.
Many Peruvians disenchanted with Toledo's weak leadership had hoped for a return of Fujimori and his tough style, which helped end the economic chaos of the 1980s and defeat leftist guerrillas. But they have turned to Humala since Fujimori's November arrest in Chile, where he is fighting extradition to Peru on a dozen counts of human rights abuses and corruption.
In the interview, Humala scorned his opponents. "None of them offers hope for a true change in Peru," he said.
Humala said he would impose greater state control over the economy and give preference to Peruvian investors over foreign capital. He wants to boost taxes and royalties on foreign mining operations and take at least a 49 percent share for the government in Peru's giant Camisea natural gas fields, which are now run by a consortium of foreign companies.
But Humala said he differs from Velasco's dictatorship in that he does not believe in "expropriating property or limiting freedom of expression."
A key concern for Washington is the illicit growing of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.
Like Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, an Indian activist who is a coca farmer, Humala said he does not support the U.S.-financed eradication of coca because it hurts poor farm families. "They're human beings trying to do the best for their children," he said.
He said he would battle drug trafficking in other ways.
Humala said he is not anti-American and hopes to have good relations with Washington.
"The only thing we want is to build a nation with dignity that will be respected and not a government like Mr. Toledo's that lets others walk over it," he said.
Sat Jan 14, 3:44 PM ET
LIMA, Peru - When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America — or, worse, a military dictator in the making.
Two days later at a news conference in Lima, Humala urged Peru's leftist parties to join his "nationalist project" and laid out policies that would make fundamental changes in Peru's free-market economy.
Wearing a green military-style jacket and an Andean Indian scarf, Humala also proclaimed deep admiration for the 1968-75 leftist dictatorship of Peruvian Gen. Juan Velasco, who carried out a largely failed agrarian reform, nationalized industries and forged close military ties with the Soviet Union.
"You could question his macroeconomics, but Velasco gave dignity to the people who lived in the countryside," Humala said, referring to Velasco's reforms, which freed rural workers from serf-like conditions on large estates.
Humala, 43, has risen strongly in opinion polls heading toward April's presidential election, moving into a tight contest with conservative former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores.
Public opinion analysts say his rapid rise — from 5 percent in August to 23 percent in December — is based largely on voters' disgust with Peru's political parties, which are widely viewed as corrupt.
Humala's economic plans unsettle many in the middle and upper classes. And some voters worry that members of his Indian-descended family are avowed racists and ultranationalists. His father describes himself as a Marxist, expresses admiration for Hitler and believes Peru's Indians and mestizos should rule. Humala insists he does not share their extremist beliefs.
Many Peruvians, especially the poor majority who feel they have not participated in Peru's solid economic growth of recent years, see Humala as the tough military man the country needs to punish the corrupt and impose order.
Humala views himself in the same light.
"Due to my military experience I believe we need discipline in the country, discipline and order," he told The Associated Press in an interview, sitting beneath a map of Peru at his spartan campaign headquarters. "What we have in Peru is the law of the jungle. Corruption abounds. The Peruvian state is corrupt and must be reinvented."
Humala burst into the spotlight when he and his brother, Antauro, a former army major, led some 70 followers in a short-lived military rebellion in October 2000, a month before President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic 10-year regime collapsed in a corruption scandal. Humala was later pardoned by Congress.
He has taken on the mantle of the anti-establishment newcomer, a role that Fujimori, a university dean, played to the hilt to get elected in 1990. Current President Alejandro Toledo, a close U.S. ally who is barred from running again, also ran as an outsider in 2001, becoming the country's first elected leader of Indian descent.
Many Peruvians disenchanted with Toledo's weak leadership had hoped for a return of Fujimori and his tough style, which helped end the economic chaos of the 1980s and defeat leftist guerrillas. But they have turned to Humala since Fujimori's November arrest in Chile, where he is fighting extradition to Peru on a dozen counts of human rights abuses and corruption.
In the interview, Humala scorned his opponents. "None of them offers hope for a true change in Peru," he said.
Humala said he would impose greater state control over the economy and give preference to Peruvian investors over foreign capital. He wants to boost taxes and royalties on foreign mining operations and take at least a 49 percent share for the government in Peru's giant Camisea natural gas fields, which are now run by a consortium of foreign companies.
But Humala said he differs from Velasco's dictatorship in that he does not believe in "expropriating property or limiting freedom of expression."
A key concern for Washington is the illicit growing of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.
Like Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, an Indian activist who is a coca farmer, Humala said he does not support the U.S.-financed eradication of coca because it hurts poor farm families. "They're human beings trying to do the best for their children," he said.
He said he would battle drug trafficking in other ways.
Humala said he is not anti-American and hopes to have good relations with Washington.
"The only thing we want is to build a nation with dignity that will be respected and not a government like Mr. Toledo's that lets others walk over it," he said.