Peru's Next President Certain to be Critic of US
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
April 28, 2006 1:08AM EST

By Howard Williams
CNSNews.com Correspondent
April 27, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - Washington's hopes of gaining a new ally in South America, amid the recent trend of leftist victories in the region, appeared dashed Thursday. It became clear that the run-off in Peru's presidential election will be between two harsh critics of the United States.

Although the final results in the first round of balloting are not yet official, 98 percent of the votes have been counted and show that front-runner Ollanta Humala will face former left-wing president Alan Garcia in the May 28 final election.

Third-placed Lourdes Flores, a conservative free market advocate who was seen as Washington's best friend in the Peruvian polls has refused to officially concede, but she has not resumed campaigning, a tacit admission that she is out of the race.

So the choice is between Humala, an army officer who led a failed coup attempt and has been accused of human rights abuses, and Garcia, a former socialist president (1985-1990) whose regime is still accused by many people of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and hyper-inflation.

Pre-first round polls agreed that if the run-off were to be between Humala and Garcia, Humala would win; had Flores beaten Garcia for the second spot in the run-off, the polls predicted she would win the final poll by a narrow margin.

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), warned against ruling out a Garcia victory on May 28.

"He has a very strong organization behind him," Weisbrot told Cybercast News Service in a telephone interview. Nevertheless, Weisbrot shared the general view that Humala is the favorite to take over the presidency.

While Weisbrot agreed that the shift of discontent throughout Latin America centered on key policies espoused by Washington, he added that he "would hesitate to use the word 'anti-American'."

Humala's support was based largely on the poor of Peru, who make up the majority of voters. They have become disenchanted with the political establishment and with the failure of successive administrations to ensure that the benefits of Peru's natural resources are shared by all.

In many ways, Garcia is seen as typical of the establishment. The country was in a bad economic state when he took power in 1985 with annual inflation at 87.7 percent. But by the time Garcia's mandate ended in 1990, inflation had rocketed to 7,649 percent.

Even Garcia admits now that his government was plagued by corruption and nepotism. But, he says he has learned from past mistakes and is ready to govern again.

As far as economic policies and foreign relations are concerned, Garcia is likely to be more moderate than Humala, who has openly declared his support for Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Chavez's dream of a so-called "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA)." Chavez envisions a regional economic and political union of like-minded nationalist governments determined to be less dependent on the United States

Both Garcia and Humala are opposed to a controversial free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, ratified this month by President Alejandro Toledo.

Garcia has promised to "renegotiate" the FTA with Washington, although there are no signs that Washington will agree to that, while Humala has promised to tear up the treaty.

Weisbrot, of the CEPR, said: "I can't believe Toledo was so stupid as to do that. This will only help Humala in the election race."

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