13 Marzo 2011

Peru has a presidential election this April, so banners and political talk are taking over the bigger cities. there is less talk about it in the small towns, but honestly, more than i would have expected. And, an organization called ONPE seems to be extremely helpful in securing the fact that everyone has the opportunity and understands how to vote (even in these small towns). I am impressed.

It is interesting to ask around who Peruvians are voting for and why. There seems to be a lot of pretty face and familiarity based voting. Tonight were the presidential debates on public television.

Lets have a look at my favorites *sarcasm*. One candidate I didn't even bother to take the time to write about here actually said, "The poor should stop being poor." during the debates tonight.

I was all about Castaneda and his ideas for creating jobs outside of Lima and diffusing money to poorer towns. He is in his second term as Mayor of Lima (big deal, seriously). Then, he said something about being for "marriage" and now I am not so sure about him.

Ollanta is a handsome devil that speaks well and whose ideas I actually was on par with. More about ridding poverty by taking some money off the top and supporting programs like Vaso de Leche. But, he is a SUPER proud Peruvian. He wants to reintroduce the death penalty, cocaine leaf cultivation, and he is anti-Chile for example. He is one proud Latino. He also welcomed Venezuelean president Hugo Chavez's support.

Toledo, of course, is my actual favorite. The changes he made in his previous presidency were small, but in the right direction (the economy grew 6%, the deficit was .2%, started the Juntos program for single moms, the US-Peru trade agreement). AND, in a completely selfish aspect, I want him to win so his administration can support my work. He had a Peace Corps volunteer in his house when he was a kid that taught him English. Because he learned English he could get an education in The States and graduated from Stanford University. I was privileged enough to meet him at the PC anniversary celebration where he shook my hand and thanked me for the work I do. Yeah, I think he is smart and has his heart at the very least closer to the right place than most politicians (his sister is under house arrest because they said she forged a bunch of signatures to help him be elected, and he has an illegitimate daughter, and people got mad when he appointed an unpopular guy as foreign minister- i don't know the details). Did I mention he is recognized as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at John Hopkins? Oh, and he was a consultant for UN, ILO, and OECD before he was president.

Then, there is Keiko. It is funny to think about this woman being president of Peru. First of all, she is a woman (wow), second, she is very educated and speaks extremely well and confidently. She KNOWS how to talk to Peruvians. I can see her just pushing at all their buttons every time she talks, in a good way. She speaks directly and grandiose. She knows how to get them on her side. She promises to fix everything from education to roads to poverty. And, she is winning in the polls, or bouncing back and forth with Toledo. She is a second generation immigrant from a japanese family line and was obviously well educated and I looked up where she went to university... Boston U.

Now... here is where it gets fuzy... Her father, Fujimori, was the president of Peru in the 90s. He actually stripped the title of first lady from his wife and gave it to Keiko during his presidency. Fujimori was president when Sendero Luminoso-Shining Path terrorists were running rampant in this country. He is credited by many for stopping them due to an image of him walking over the bodies of Sendero Luminoso soldiers that were dead ( i think, i am hearing through word of mouth).

But, let's rewind and have a look at the early Fujimori. He came from a very poor family, and could relate well to the gigantic poor populations in Peru. He actually beat the internationally known and nobel prize winning author Mario Vargas Llosa in his first election. During his first term he actually stabilized a hyper-inflated Peruvian economy, and cut down cocaine growth dramatically. The man was very popular. He was known for doing crazy stuff to produce dramatic change... cool, but listen to this: Due to a political deadlock in 1992 (aka, the congress couldn't get anything through because everyone disagreed with everyone-sound familiar?) he shut down congress!AND, the public supported this! Thank the lord the Organization of American States told him he had to cut that shit out and return to a representative democracy. This was about the time Peace Corps left Peru... political instability... i'll say!

In 1993 Fujimori ran for a second time and won with 2/3 the vote. This is when Peruvians say he started to act authoritarian. I say, isn't shutting down the congress a little dictatorial? But, what do I know? During this term he didn't seem to do much (heard he built schools, maybe?), but he did pass a law allowing him to run again...

Third run at presidency he ran against Toledo. He actually won the bare majority, but there were rumors of meddling. Then Fujimori's buddy Montesinos was exposed in a video bribing opposition for votes. Fujimori... still president at the time, in his second term, basically says, "fine" and agrees to have a re-election of which he will not be a part, and he goes on "vacation" to Japan. From Tokyo, he FAXES the peruvian government his resignation. Hilarious! Congress denied his resignation and impeached him.

Then... "stuff" started to appear. They say that in order for his government to obtain information to hunt down the leaders of Shining path and MRTA (the two terrorist groups he "defeated"), he violated human rights laws to get information. Thanks to wiki: "According to Amnesty International, "the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law.""um...

So, now in our timeline Toledo is president, and Fujimori is in self proclaimed exile in Japan. Fujimori is convicted of being co-author for a bunch of killings (some students and professors of Cantuta University, and some innocent citizens in Barrios Altos). All those killed were suspected to be terrorist group members... but weren't. But, Fujimori is in Japan, and the Japanese government refused to extradite him. Then, another case finds that Fujimori probably took part in dropping a bunch of weapons in the jungles of colombia for guerrilla fighters. THEN, he is linked to the disappearance of 67 citizens of Chimbote. THEN, they found that money donated from Japanese NGO's were actually re-routed to his personal bank accounts, mounting to about $600 million embezzled.

And what does Peru do... they give up trying to get him extradited from Japan. hahaha!

And Fujimori decides he wants to take a "vacation" to Peru, and decides he might want to run for president again. Looney. He heads over to visit Chile first, is arrested, and expedited to Peru.

Tried in 2009, and sentenced to 6 years in prison for violating human rights. He is still in jail today.

Now, you might say, "Well, you can't necessarily link the father to the daughter." But, in ALL of Keiko's political advertisement she never says, "I", she always says, "we" or "my family". There is still such strong support for Fujimori in Peru because they believe he stopped the horrible terrorism in the 90s, she is banking on people voting for her due to their thanks for her dad. Basically, people want to vote for her because she says she will take her dad out of prison. That is the only thing I hear people say when I ask them why they will vote for Keiko. C'mon! You didn't like terrorists because they were killing people to get what they wanted. Fujimori is in jail for violating human rights and killing people to get what he wanted!

Ok, that's my rant.

As a biased, educated, American citizen living in Peru who was not a part of and therefore can never completely understand this country's rich and sad history, i say, "Vote for Toledo... please."

But, we are talking about a country that re-elected a dud president Garcia a second time. People say they voted for Garcia because he didn't do anything before and at least he didn't to anything bad.