Peru's Climate of Fear and Bubbling Political Inequality
The only way for Pedro Castillo to survive a full presidential term would be to distance himself from radicals and cozy up to moderates.
Hari Seshasayee
23 HOURS AGO
Peru’s constantly changing political landscape never ceases to amaze. Peruvians have now elected five presidents from completely distinct political parties in five consecutive elections. This is unprecedented in the history of human democracy and also highlights the frailty of political representation in the country.
Although Pedro Castillo from the Perú Libre (Free Peru) party inched ahead of Keiko Fujimori’s Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) by a slim 0.2% margin, an official winner has yet to be announced in Peru’s elections. Fujimori claims the elections are fraudulent, a charge that Peru’s National Jury of Elections has publicly condemned as “irresponsible political declarations that increase social polarisation and weaken the credibility of electoral authorities”. International observers have recognised the free and fair conduct of elections, which is also apparent in the trove of publicly available election data and the live-streamed judgements of every single contested vote in a bid to ensure transparency – perhaps the first such instance in our era of modern democracy.
Alberto Vergara, a Peruvian political scientist from the University of the Pacific, said in a recent interview that “we should be conscious of the mechanisms of post-truth that are prepping for an electoral coup”. Although it remains unlikely, in case Fujimori manages to annul an estimated 200,000 votes in Castillo’s base in the highlands, it would not only break Peru’s longest democratic run, but also stretch the chasm between the coast and the interior.
If Castillo is inaugurated as president come July 28, his only chance of survival would be to moderate, becoming something akin to Ollanta Humala, who was elected president in 2011 on a leftist platform but governed as a centrist. The forewarnings predicting that Castillo will convert Peru into another Venezuela are unlikely to come true: Castillo has neither the popularity nor the political capital to enact radical measures through Congress or presidential decree. In fact, radicalisation would be political suicide, as Peru’s right and centre-right parties hold enough seats in Congress to impeach Castillo if push comes to shove.
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https://thewire.in/world/peru-political-inequality-pedro-castillo