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[April 06, 2006]

In Peru, another novice pol lifted by tide of disappointment

(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)By Esther Rebollo.

Lima, Apr 6 (EFE).- Generalized deep disappointment with the performance in government of mainstream politicians and parties has lifted to the top of Peruvian presidential polls a nationalist former army colonel who describes the old school as a sewer.

The long-time lack of confidence on the part of the provinces toward Lima, which in 1990 contributed to the out-of-nowhere election of Alberto Fujimori to the presidency, is boosting the candidacy of another political novice, Ollanta Humala.

The so-called "phenomenon of Humala," who made his appearance on the political stage less than a year ago, is also a result of the latent class differences in the Andean nation, where the majority of the population has not shared in the economic gains made.

Many Peruvians and some political analysts compare Humala's quick rise to that of Fujimori 16 years ago.

Fujimori, who is in jail in Chile while the courts weigh an extradition request by Peru on 10 counts of corruption and two of human rights violations, defeated, to everyone's surprise, famous writer Mario Vargas Llosa at the polls in the 1990 presidential election.

The main difference, though, is that Humala was already well known in Peru before launching his candidacy, due to his military background - which included a failed coup attempt against Fujimori - and for belonging to a politically controversial family that has cast a shadow on his campaign.

Humala, the candidate of the Peruvian Nationalist Party, or UPP, led a failed coup with his brother, Antauro, on Oct. 29, 2000, against Fujimori, shortly before the president, hounded by corruption scandals, fled to Japan.

After being granted amnesty in 2001, Ollanta was sent as a military attache to France and South Korea.

While in South Korea, Humala began building the political machine that he hoped would take him to the presidency.

Antauro, however, staged another unsuccessful coup on Jan. 1, 2005, against current President Alejandro Toledo in the Andean city of Andahuaylas that ended up with him being jailed after four police officers died in the unsuccessful uprising.

Humala has recently appeared to be distancing himself somewhat from the UPP, which in the past has called for setting up a government along the lines of the Inca empire, abolishing all forms of currency, nationalizing foreign companies, legalizing all coca farming and jailing homosexuals, among other policies.

His father, Isaac, founded the Etnocacerista movement, a group that takes its name from field marshall and former President Andres Avelino Caceres, a hero of Peru's losing 1879-1883 War of the Pacific against Chile.

The movement fosters xenophobia against Chile, the United States and Israel as part of a platform that also includes indigenous demands and Inca myths.

During his campaign, Humala has had to defend himself against allegations, which are being investigated by the Attorney General's Office, that he committed human rights violations when he commanded a military base in the jungle region of Madre Mia.

Humala was commander of the Madre Mia military base from 1992 to 1993, when the Maoist Shining Path insurgency had escalated its attacks.

The allegations, however, have not prevented him from garnering support in Peru for his proposals.

They include vows to bring about "the transformation of the country" via a constitutional assembly that would draft a new charter to replace the Peruvian Constitution approved in 1993 during Fujimori's administration.

"We wish to consolidate democracy," Humala said last week on the campaign trail, responding to those who call him an authoritarian and after explaining that his experiences as an officer and a candidate have given him an appreciation that "national politics are a sewer."

The majority of citizens, meanwhile, say they have not benefited from the economic growth in Peru in recent years.

These feelings of exclusion have fed the rejection of the traditional politicians that Humala faces in Sunday's election: veteran Lourdes Flores, of the National Unity party, and Alan Garcia, the leader of the American Populist Revolutionary Party, or APRA, and a former president whose 1985-1990 administration ended with Peru's economy in a shambles.

The established parties all view a possible victory by Humala with trepidation, believing that Peru could end up with an authoritarian system patterned after the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez, another former army colonel and failed coup plotter who was first elected in late 1998 on a platform that decried the corruption and inefficacy of traditional parties and politicians.

The one sure thing is that Humala's nationalist rhetoric has boosted his standing at the national level and especially in the Andean region of the country, where poverty and marginalization plague the mostly Indian population.

About half of Peru's population of 26 million is Amerindian.

Flores, whose stronghold is in Lima, has been portrayed by her rivals as the "candidate of the rich."

Suspicions about the political system, combined with rising crime in some areas and lingering social exclusion, have shaped Peruvians' views on politics, according to the most recent report on Peru by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP).

The UNDP found that 73.2 percent of Peruvians said they supported an authoritarian system and 90 percent said the country's democracy was not working well because of the politicians. EFE

erm/hv

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