All is normal in Belgium
Occasionally I check the news headlines back in the “old country”. Loosely translated, the top headline on Google news Belgium reads:
“Minister Vande Lanotte requests investigation into higher beer prices.”
Belgian minister of economics requests investigation into higher beer prices. Salud!
Johan Vande Lanotte is Belgium’s new minister of economics and I actually had him pegged as one of the more reasonable politicians in Belgium.
Here in Peru, most Peruvians have a fairly low opinion and approval rating of their politicians. What’s interesting to me though is that during any conversation I have about politics with a Peruvian (for the most part I stay away from the subject) most Peruvians somehow think politicians in those far away Northern countries are really the proverbial cat’s meow.
I love Europe but the leaders there live in such a fantasy world.
Peru presidential elections – Unseriously
Round 1 of the 2011 Peruvian presidential elections is over. The June runoff will be between Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala (some background about the candidates here).
Most of our friends don’t care much for either candidate. Among other things, Ollanta Humala wants to re-write Peru’s constitution, likely giving more power to the poor and less to business and foreign investment.
I thought I’d have a little fun on my Facebook page and see just how much bad stuff about Ollanta the typical jeans-wearing, iPhone toting, middle-class Peruvian (ie. most of our friends) would believe.
Facebook screenshot Ollanta Humala plans to outlaw Peruvians marrying gringos 
(click on the image for full size)
The people who commented on my silly joke are all good friends and good people (and not all are Peruvian), but it does show how easy it is to plant irrational fear (Glenn Beck anyone?) about anyone whose ideology may not correspond with your own.
The first round election result is fairly interesting, because both Keiko and Ollanta have their followers but there’s also a significant part of Peru’s population (mostly middle class and business establishment) who don’t like either. The fear is that Keiko will bring back more corruption and Humala may upset business and foreign investment to some extent. Peru’s presidential election runoff is almost akin to, say, a choice between Ivanka Trump (daughter of a famous person) and Michael Moore.
My personal input to the Peruvian presidential elections is only this:
1) As a visitor/guest here I don’t care who becomes Peru’s next president. However the Peruvian people choose to govern their country is up to them and I’m privileged to be here as a guest.
2) No matter who wins the runoff, I don’t think there will be a significant change in daily life in Peru. Even though both candidates are seen as potentially having some issues, I think Peru’s society is strong with very close families, reasonable institutions, a fair economy, etc. Politics here can be interesting and colorful, but in my view politics are not that big of a factor in society.
Peru presidential elections are almost here
Peru’s 2011 Presidential elections are almost upon us. April 10 is the big day, and I believe tonight is the final televised debate between the leading candidates.
Let me say 2 things first:
1) I am a guest in Peru so it doesn’t matter to me who wins or loses. I’m privileged to be here and however the Peruvian people choose to govern their country is up to them.
2) I’m Belgian, so you should never take my advice on any matters of politics or government. When it comes to politics, the only thing we Belgians can say is “Thank God for Italy!”
Having said all that, here’s a few notes about the leading candidates in Peru’s upcoming 2011 Presidential elections, for no purpose other than to show how the candidates come across to a gringo. Official bios, photos, web pages and the like can be found here.
1) Alejandro Toledo: He was Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006 and was first Peruvian president of native Indian (Quechua) heritage, but his politics were free-market oriented. He left office to rather low approval ratings, due to the fact that many felt the macro-economic gains that were made did not extend to all Peruvians. On the other hand, nothing bad or particularly controversial happened during his tenure, which was a welcome change from the late 20th century. He’s considered a strong candidate in the upcoming elections, but I know someone who knows some people who know Toledo and say less than favorable things about him.
2) Lucho Castañeda: He was mayor of Lima (home to about 30% of Peru’s population) from 2003 to 2010 and enjoyed generally good approval ratings, easily winning re-election. He implemented the Metropolitano bus system in Lima, which has to be regarded as a great success – although it’s only a small first step in Lima’s transportation solution. Otherwise I don’t know much about Castañeda’s ideology. He’s divorced and conventional wisdom says he has little chance of becoming president without a first lady.
3) Ollanta Humala: He’s the villain of them all, widely painted by his opponents as a “leftist” of the same mold of Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez. Humala narrowly lost the 2006 Presidential elections. He seems to have moderated his stance on some issues like foreign investment, but he remains a controversial figure. His opponents and the establishment in general paint a sad picture of Peru heading for the same abyss as Bolivia under Evo Morales should Ollanta Humala be elected, ignoring the fact that Bolivia has one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America and Evo enjoys high approval ratings. But since when does reality trump ideology in this world? Of all the leading candidates Humala is the only one who’s married to a Peruvian, so at least outside of politics he has good judgement 
4) Keiko Fujimori: She’s the daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori. Her father was president from 1990 to 2000, when he was driven out of the country by a popular revolution. During Alberto Fujimori’s regime, Peru saw an end to terrorism and the economic chaos of the 1980s, but his regime was also marked by human rights abuse and corruption, especially in later years. Keep in mind that Peru has a very young population (partly due to the stability that was brought under Fujimori) and something like 20% of the voting public has no adult memory of Fujimori’s presidency. However, there has remained a strong “Fujimori” following and political party in Peru, led now by his daughter Keiko. I don’t know much about Keiko’s ideological convictions, but her VP candidate is ultra-conservative. I guess Keiko has a chance only if someone can be elected president just for being the child of a well-known ex-president. Eerrrgh, wait, where did I see that one before?
5) PPK or Pedro Pablo Kuczynski: He’s Patricia’s favorite, and the favorite of many of her friends as well. I have a PPK poster on the window, but my dog barks at it. It has to be said my dog is one of the dumber dogs you’ll ever meet. In seriousness, PPK is perhaps the most Western of all the leading candidates. He held US citizenship (I think he renounced it before the elections) and has worked on Wall Street. He has a free-market ideology and as minister of economy under Toledo should take some credit for the macro-economic gains that Peru has made. Although I’m not a fan of this ideology (ie. what’s good for business is good for everyone), I have to say that PPK appears to be a thoughtful and reasonable person, and considering his age and previously successful career I would be more inclined to believe that he’s running to serve the country as opposed to running in order to make financial gain for himself and his inner circle.
Finally, it always strikes me how so many politicians no matter where you are would like you to believe the world as you know it would end without their magnificent leadership. Consider this quote from the Ottawa Citizen about Belgian politics, titled No Government, No Problem:
And that quote is more than a month old by now, still no Belgian government, beer exports are still going on fine
Egypt
Occasionally I get sidetracked into something totally unrelated to life in Peru, like the current news about violence and government crackdown in Egypt.
Here’s a bit of information from Congressional Research Service about US economic and military aid to Egypt:
And for illustration:
Your tax dollars at work... (c) AP
Here’s what I’m thinking:
- Sort of strange how we found it necessary to bring democracy to places like Iraq and Afghanistan but you never hear many calls for democracy in places like Egypt, Kuwait, or Saudi Arabia.
- All that military assistance ($1.3 billion in military aid annually) is reminiscent of the 1970s fiasco when we provided F-14s – then the biggest and baddest weapon around – to the flimsy regime of the Shah in Iran, only to later regret it. Lesson learned? Didn’t think so.
All this is very similar to the US involvement in Latin America during the so called Cold War. Regimes that were aligned with Washington received all sorts of military and economic assistance. Oppressive regimes just pulled the “communist” card whenever they encountered any sort of opposition, and in swooped Washington to fight for freedom and democracy. Or was it bananas we were fighting for?
Here’s a comment from Ambassador Bob White about US involvement in Central America during the so called Cold War:
We have a gazillion dollar “intelligence” budget. Your tax dollars go to reports on Alan Garcia’s emotional and physical health and people who check out your *ss every time you board an airplane, but at the end of the day the US intelligence community is clueless. They’re just a bunch of people stuck in the same old ideologies, they will always arrive at the expected conclusion. The US intelligence community didn’t foresee Egypt any more than they did the fall of the Shah in Iran.
Still believe you live in the “Land of the Free” up there?
l’histoire se répète
Good article on Kyrgyzstan in the NY Times today. Reminiscent of the de-stabilizing effect of foreign influence in Latin America during the so-called Cold War, with disastrous results from Chile to El Salvador.
Here’s an excerpt:
Otto agrees
Adding on to my recent post about LatAm media coverage, where I said:
“…Hugo and Evo are hugely popular in Latin America because they’re good for Latin America”
Apparently Otto agrees in his recent post about the Bolivian economy, saying:
“A once and future coca leaf grower runs countries better than teams of dumbasses in suits (you know them by the name ‘economists’) with multisquillon dollar eddycations…”
My only issue with that is that Otto narrowed it down to economists, instead of the more general rich old guys in suits. Whether it’s Alan Garcia or Jack Welch or Al Gore, be leary of rich old guys in suits who profess to know what’s good for average Joe. Far too often said rich old guys in suits have made big bucks robbing said average Joe blind.
Peru: good news update
After the violence in Bagua on June 5 it is good to read a few promising Peru news items:
- Controversial laws of the jungle may be revoked soon. (Spanish)
- Peruvian Prime Minister Yehude Simon indicated he may quit after calm is fully restored.
This does not mean all is well in the world of politics in Peru, it’s only words at this point. But it’s hope for a beginning to the end of Alan Garcia’s sell-out-Peru, money-at-all-cost policies.
Alan Garcia must go!
If you’ve been reading this blog for some time you know I love Peru. However, the government of Alan Garcia and its implementation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA/TLC) between Peru and the US has put Peru on the brink of becoming a Police State:
- Violent repression of peaceful protests at Bagua.
- Blatantly racist government propaganda run on national TV in the aftermath.
- Suspension of opposition lawmakers for their support of the indigenous movement.
- Government shutdown of media channel sympathetic to the opposition. (IKN)
- Intimidation of the media and their families!
All this because of years of neglect (NY Times) of the indigenous people in Peru combined with Free Trade policies that have zoned 72% of the Peruvian Amazon for development and exploration (Duke University).
Alan Garcia cartoon, protest in Cusco
At the Corpus Christi celebrations in Cusco this week we saw this poster as one of many expressions of solidarity with the people of the Amazon. Unfortunately US and European media and governments have been largely quiet on the troubling developments in Peru. I’m convinced if the same kind of things took place in Ecuador, Venezuela or Bolivia – countries with left wing governments – there would be widespread media coverage and political condemnation.
People with different points of view may blame political opposition or foreign influence, but even if only 10% of the independent and eyewitness reports are true, the events at Bagua are still enough to demand Alan Garcia’s resignation.
It’s time to put ideologies aside and demand that Alan Garcia and his entire government resign!
How to bring a dictator to justice – or not?
My good friends at CIP are participating in a presentation on the successful extradition of Alberto Fujimori.
I don’t mean to be insensitive to anyone who suffered from abuses under the Fujimori regime, but I have to disagree with the folks at CIP on this:
The Fujimori verdict and the “autor-mediato” principle give everyone in Peru who was complicit in the abuses of his regime a way to escape responsibility, and that is bad for Peru.
After the bloodbath in Bagua last week, you have to ask how the country is any better now than a decade ago, and how can a government that kills its own citizens and manipulates the media possibly have any credibility bringing their predecessors to justice?
Look, I love Peru but I’m not naive, there are a lot of issues. I worry that saying “justice has been done”, now that Fujimori is in jail, puts a false stamp of approval on the Peru of today. But the problems in Peru don’t begin or end with Alberto Fujimori or even Alan Garcia, just changing the puppet master at the top without changing the culture only gives us a false sense of improvement and a convenient excuse to escape accountability.
I’ve seen nothing but apathy here in Cusco around the Fujimori verdict, perhaps because many people remember how Peru was before Fujimori.
About us
View from Machu Picchu, Peru
Read the story about 2 tickets to Lynyrd Skynyrd, love over gold, and our move to the beautiful city of Cusco, Peru.
Ward Welvaert & Patricia Carrasco
Cusco, Peru
contact: ward DOT welvaert AT gmail DOT com
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