PERU - Deeply divided politically

Hello everyone, Jess here. As you may know, we are headed down to Peru just after the June 2011 Presidential Election. Needless to say, it is an interesting time in Peruvian politics.

I was fortunate enough to be in Peru in 2000 when the 'Vladivideos' were coming out (loooooong, fascinating story) and it was discovered that former president, Alberto Fujimori, was totally corrupt. It was almost comical to watch the news as Fujimori galavanted around the country in search of Vladmiro Montesinos (to whom Fujimori was a puppet) who had already escaped the country. Both Fujimori and Montesinos will spend the rest of their productive lives in prison for human rights abuses (mass murder), corruption, etc,etc the list goes on. Had Keiko Fujimori won the presidency, surely Alberto would have been pardoned. For this reason alone (and many others) I am so very happy she didn't win.

Thank goodness the political situation isn't as ridiculous as it used to be (for now). I think it is fair to say that Peru has made substantive strides in the way of democracy in the past decade. This is an extremely welcome phenomenon in light of the fact that in the past 20 years 30,000 people died from political violence with more than 4,000 people 'disappeared' and 400,000 people displaced.  The victims of torture are too numerous to be accurately counted.

However, it would seem that this country is on the up and up. Peru has also experienced a significant economic gain in recent years, primarily through foreign investment in mining. (Canada is a major investor, for better or worse) In 2010, Peru scored .723 (out of 1) on the UN's Human Development Index while the world averaged .624. This is encouraging! Canada scored .88.

Yet, 50% of the country lives below the poverty line and the economic gains have been shared by few. Unemployment is a huge issue. We mustn't be mislead to believe that Peru doesn't have a long road ahead. True democracy and justice, social equality, sustainability and a higher standard of living  is still out of reach for the majority.

Looking forward, it will be interesting to see what impact the newly elected president, Ollanta Humula, has. In any case, what we see now is a deeply divided country as Ollanta barely won the presidency by an extremely slim majority. In this past election Peruvians had to chose between a Hugo Chavez sympathizer and the puppet daughter of Alberto Fujimori - talk about picking from the best of the worst!

Will Humala be able to continue Peru on its growing economic path AND distribute the wealth more equitably? Will free market capitalism and social equity find some synergy? Will Peru be able to do in decades what 'developed countries' did in centuries? Will the opposing sides of Peru's political divide come together for the betterment of the nation? It's hard to be overly optimistic, but, in any case, I for one sure hope so!

Check out these links for some articles on Peru's recent election:

http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6398

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/06/ollanta-humala-elected-peru-vote_n_871686.html

http://www.atthegrapevine.com/wordpress/politics/peru-2011-political-polarisation