Humala makes Peru runoff
LIMA, Peru – A gruff, polarizing retired army officer who courted Peru’s poor and terrified its rich with promises to distribute the country’s wealth more fairly appeared Monday to be headed for a presidential runoff.
The 43-year-old military man, Ollanta Humala, called on “all Peruvians” after Sunday’s vote to “join up with this movement to transform Peru.”
But a close battle for second place left unanswered whom Humala would likely face in the second round – pro-business former congresswoman Lourdes Flores or Alan Garcia, a center-left ex-president.
With 76.6 percent of the votes tallied, official results gave Humala 29.8 percent, Garcia 25 percent and Flores 24.5 percent.
Since no single candidate won a majority, the top two vote-getters will meet in late May or early June in a runoff.
A victory by Humala could tilt this Andean nation leftward. Flores and Garcia vow to generally maintain free-market policies that have generated economic growth averaging 5.5 percent the past four years but haven’t created enough jobs for poor Peruvians.
The country’s poverty level hovers just above 50 percent.
Humala has instilled fear, especially among Peru’s middle and upper classes, by identifying with Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s militantly anti-U.S. president.
When he and his wife went to vote in an upper-class district on Sunday, hundreds of hostile protesters trapped them for nearly an hour and taunted them with chants of “Assassin” and “You’re the same as Chavez.” A few threw rocks.
Many Peruvians resent Humala’s populist campaign as opportunistic and incendiary – Humala belongs to a high-profile mestizo clan of avowed racists who believe Peru’s “copper-colored” majority should have superior status over whites. He insists he does not share his relatives’ views.
The “assassin” chants were an apparent reference to allegations that Humala committed human rights abuses in 1992 as the commander of a counterinsurgency base in Peru’s eastern jungle, charges he denies.
Humala’s fomenting of an indigenous backlash against descendants of Peru’s European conquistadors galvanized support.
“In a country where most citizens suffer from racism, elections become an opportunity for them to take revenge,” said human rights activist Wilfredo Ardito.