Peru Notes, News and Analysis

[mosfeld]

This thread will be similar to the Indian, Filipino and Nepalese news threads. I'll also provide commentary with the news I post.
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I like Mario Vargas Llosa's comparison of Peruvian elections to "choosing between AIDS and terminal cancer." The reality is that regardless of who wins these elections absolutely nothing will change. Garcia, the supposed "left" candidate in the last elections who won through populist rhetoric, further neo-liberalized the country by, for example, signing several free trade agreements with the EU countries amongst others. Mass poverty, misery, unemployment, mass protest etc, still define Peruvian reality and will continue to do so, regardless if the supposed "left" candidate Humala or Fujimori wins.


In Peru, two weak choices

Peru's politics have long been ailing. The likely choice between populist Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori, daughter of a jailed president who abused human rights, could further imperil its health.

Peru's political system has been ailing for decades. Corruption, violence and deep economic inequalities have left it weakened. Now, the first round of voting in the presidential race, which took place Sunday, threatens to leave the country in critical condition.

From a field of five candidates, two emerged as front-runners likely to move on to a runoff election June 5. Both appear wanting in experience, and concerns about their commitment to democracy prompted Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa to say the decision will be like "choosing between AIDS and terminal cancer."

The top vote-getter, Ollanta Humala, is a former military officer turned fiery populist who promises to redistribute the country's wealth and rewrite the constitution, raising concerns that he might try to extend his term in office. Once a vocal admirer of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he has tried in recent years to tone down the anti-capitalistic rhetoric that had prompted comparisons to Bolivia and Ecuador's leaders and to position himself nearer the center.

His closest rival is expected to be Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a jailed president convicted of human rights abuses and rampant corruption. A congresswoman, she has relied on Alberto Fujimori's former cohorts to steer her campaign and has promised to pardon him if elected. Like Humala, she has pledged to help the poor but has offered few other details of her program beyond declaring her support for the death penalty in cases of the rape of minors.

Peru can't afford either candidate. Too much is at stake.

The Andean country is only starting to clean up after the pinata of corruption that was the Fujimori era. The faceless military courts that imprisoned untold numbers of innocent Peruvians as terrorists have been dismantled, but the judicial system remains weak. The brutal Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, has largely been defeated, but new threats have surfaced. Last year, Peru produced more coca leaves than Colombia, according to a United Nations report, prompting fears of violence and further corruption. (Although coca is grown legally in some areas of Peru, the vast majority of coca fields are illegal.) And even though Peru's economy grew by about 9% last year, the benefits of the boom have yet to reach the poor, the majority of whom live outside Lima, where social and public services are scarce.

With less than two months to go before the runoff, Peruvians have few choices. Luckily, neither candidate has a strong majority and both still need to woo voters, who can withhold support and demand that both Humala and Fujimori pledge to respect the nascent democratic institutions and to maintain the current presidential term limits.http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-peru-20110415,0,3363115.story

[mosfeld]

Peruvian military officers have often attributed the continued support and existence of the PCP on the mass poverty, unemployment, underemployment, malnutrition, etc, amongst the masses, something which they deem as one of the most dire problems facing Peruvian society. Following this logic, if the genocidal Peruvian regime and it's ruling class were actually serious in tackling the "problem" of People's War, they'd, instead of wasting money on business school for foreigners, which is most likely for future investments in Peru, invest in reducing the misery of the masses.


Peru's top MBA program offers scholarships for foreigners

Centrum Católica, the business school of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima, Peru is offering 70% tuition scholarships to up to ten foreign (non-Peruvian) students beginning its full-time MBA program. Classes start May 4, 2011, accepting applications until April 17. The scholarships are awarded based on academic merit.

The total cost of the 13 month program with the scholarship is S/. 18,000, which can be paid over 12 monthly payments of S/. 1,500 (about $535). The program also includes a two week trip to Babson College in Boston where the students will take classes and expand their global vision of business. Additionally many foreign students may challenge their language skills, as all classes are taught in Spanish, except those taught at Babson College in English.

Centrum Católica is accredited by AACSB and AMBA.

See more information about the scholarship here. (http://centrum.pucp.edu.pe/en/contenido.php?4688/presenciales/scholarships_for_outstanding_foreign_professionals _5.html)http://www.livinginperu.com/news/14669

[mosfeld]

Yesterday I replied to a Bay of Pigs thread, asking a supporter of Cuba what he thought about a video I sent him of Cuban women during a revolutionary celebration who were depicted in an extremely pornographic fashion for a so-called so socialist state. After realizing how derailing that was for a thread, I was going to post a new thread on sexism in Cuba, so I started throwing together some notes for a thread which, not surprisingly if you've been following my recent posts, derailed into me just writing notes on the Peruvian People's War in comparison. Here are the notes (or article.. I'll call them notes since this was thrown together fairly quickly and is fairly unprofessional for an "article"), for anybody who is interested! :)


Notes on The Cuban Revolution and the Peruvian People's War: A Comparison of Women's Participation

While celebrating the anniversary of the revolution in 2008, women were depicted like pornstars, dancing while wearing nothing but skimpy bikinis and thongs. (1)

I think that this can be reflected in the general attitude that the Cuban regime has towards women. I remember having read somewhere that Cuban feminists used to complain during the '80s or '70s that their husbands were "revolutionary on the streets", but "reactionary at home". The attitude that men had towards women in Cuba reinforces this. According to a survery which 30 union leaders and 27 rank-and-files participated in, only one said that working was a "valid feminine objective". (2)

The regime itself did very little to help get rid of this negative sexist attitude, since women's representation in the workforce, state and overall leadership was very low: 15% of Party members, 6% of Party officials and none in the Central Committee (IIRC) were women. According to Fidel Castro, in 1975, 17% of Party cell leaders and 13% were provincial Party executive committee leaders were women. (3) According to another study, 5.5% of national Party leaders, 6.3% of provincial Party leaders, 4.1% of regional Party leaders, 2.9% of municipal Party leaders and 15.3% of leaders in the economy were women. (4) In the Cuban military, women could only be reservists.(5) A supposed socialist leader pointed out that in 1977, only 22.7% of Cuban women were actually employed. (6) Haydee Santamaria, a Cuban woman leader, remarked that women were the “weaker sex” (7)

I don’t have rankings for these today, but, according to Wikipedia, women hold 35% of the seats in the National Assembly today (8), which is, in this extremely misogynist and patriarchal world we live in, very good on an international scale.

But, either way, compared to the Peruvian People’s Wars during the ‘80s and ‘90s, women’s participation in decision making of the guerrilla movement was still more explicit. Compared to that 35% of women in the National Assembly in Cuba, 42%, or 8, of the 19 member Central Committee of the PCP were women. (9) While Castro initially forbid women from joining the ranks of guerrillas in the Cuban 26th of July Movement, about 40% of PCP guerrillas were women. (10)

If you’re asking yourself, “well, he initially didn’t let women join the guerrilla movement, but what about later on?” True, Castro later repealed that rule, thanks to his rumored lover Celia Sanchez having convinced him otherwise.(11) But, regardless, only two women actually participated in the guerrilla campaign. (12)

Robin Kirk, a journalist with no sympathies towards the Peruvian Maoist movement, claimed that the PCP were the “first to break” what she deemed to be male dominance in the communist movement “forged in the Che Guevara image”. (13) The Peruvian military commanders even made up scary propaganda stories about the ferociousness of women guerrillas in comparison to their male counterparts. Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Romero Barestagui claimed that witnesses saw a wimpy crying Peruvian male guerrilla who had been shot in the arm, to which a women guerrilla replied by pulling his hair back and slitting his throat. (14)

“(…) they are frequently described as more ruthless than men, often administering the coup de grace, a gunshot in the back of the head.” (15)

Clearly, the power of women as a mighty force of revolution, to use a Maoist slogan, were feared by the Peruvian ruling class – and rightly so, women were almost entirely absent from the Peruvian military, while women, particularly Indian, flocked to join the movement, since, as explained by a bourgeois newspaper, “(…) uneducated women were unable to vote until 1980 because of illiteracy laws, rape is hardly ever punished, racism against Indian groups is deeply entrenched and it is nearly impossible for a woman to escape the cycle of poverty, childbearing, excessive labor and early aging.” (16)

A community activist in Ayacucho remarked that for Peruvian women to have been raped is a “great shame which she must hide from society and especially her family (…) gossip and machoismo combine to make life hard for the husband as well, who is ridiculed by people who say the rapist is more macho than him. All the weight of the act, the blame, falls on the woman” (17) Unfortunately for Peruvian women, particularly Indian, “(…) reported cases [of rape by “security personnel”] often involve the insertion of foreign objects into the vagina and anus, combined with other forms of torture including electric shock to the genitals and breasts; rape of pregnant women and of minors; and gang rape (…)” (18) These rapes are rarely reported, though, since “(…) usually they are told they or their family members will be killed if they report rape” (19)

Assuming that Peruvian females were more brutal than their male counterparts, with the above points in mind, is it surprising at all?

Amongst the PCP military commanders, Carol Andreas claims that its best known ones had been teenage women (20) such as Edith Lagos, who, in 1982, helped orchestrate the Ayacucho prison break, which led to the liberation of 78 guerrillas and 169 common prisoners, (21) and whose “oratory skills inspired peasants throughout the South Central Sierra”. (22) That same year, at the age of 19, she was murdered. Her funeral was attended by 30,000 people in the same small town where she had orchastrated the prison break (23)

I’d argue that the young female military commanders like Edith Lagos (and her martyrdom), the extremely marginalizing and misogynist society that Peru was, and is, as well as the agitation and the PCPs masterful application of the mass line was what drove Peruvian women towards the ranks of the PCP which subsequently unleashed them as war machines against the Peruvian fascist state, to fight for their own liberation.

(1) Youtube, Cuba: Revolution Anniversary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXXDioyudGo)
(2) PLP - Castro's Phony Communism, Progressive Labor Magazine Vol. 15, No. 2
(3) Jorge I. Domínguez , Cuba: Order and Revolution, p. 324
(4) André & Francine DeMichel , Cuba, p. 356
(5) Herbert L. Matthews, Revolution In Cuba: An essay in understanding, p. 331
(6) Samuel Farber, Going Home to Cuba, p. 144-145
(7) Herbert L. Matthews, Revolution In Cuba: An essay in understanding, p. 337
(8) Wikipedia, Cuban National Assembly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_National_Assembly)
(9) New York Times, Shining Path Women: So Many and So Ferocious (http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/22/world/lima-journal-shining-path-women-so-many-and-so-ferocious.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm)
(10) Ibid
(11) Miguel A. Faria, Jr, Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement (http://www.haciendapub.com/castro24.html)
(12) Louis M. Smith and Alfred Padula, Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba, p. 24
(13) Harvard Magazine, Violence in Peru (http://harvardmagazine.com/1996/05/right.violence.html)
(14) New York Times, Shining Path Women: So Many and So Ferocious (http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/22/world/lima-journal-shining-path-women-so-many-and-so-ferocious.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm)
(15) Ibid
(16) Ibid
(17) Robin Kirk, Untold Teror: Violence Against Women in Peru’s Armed Conflict, p. 9-10
(18) Ibid, p. 2
(19) Ibid
(20) Robin Kirk, Untold Teror: Violence Against Women in Peru’s Armed Conflict, p. 9-10
(20) Carol Andreas, Women At War (http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94298433) (excerpts)
(21) Robin Kirk, The Monkey’s Paw: New Chronicles from Peru, p. 80
(22) Carol Andreas, Women At War (http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94298433) (excerpts)
(23) Ibid

[mosfeld]

Her father used to bullshit the Peruvian masses like this, too. Who actually believes this? Anybody remember her fathers electoral promises, like how he promised to not further privatize the country, subsequently followed by the notorious Fujishock?



Keiko: "I swear to God I will not pardon my father"

Keiko Fujimori said Monday afternoon that if she is elected president, she will not grant a pardon to free her father, ex president Alberto Fujimori, sentenced to 25 years imprisonment por corruption and crimes against humanity.

"I have repeated this many times; it is not my intention, neither my family's intention to grant a pardon to Alberto Fujimori. I ratify this. I swear to God that I will not grant him a pardon," said Keiko, after visiting Peruvian box world champion Kina Malpartida.

Keiko reminded the press that she had a critical attitude towards her father's administration when she was First Lady.

"I condemn the mistakes that occured during my father's government, as well as I salute the positive actions of his administration; I think we should look into the past with objectiveness and without rancour," she said.

The candidate for Fuerza 2011 also said that if she is elected president, she would work without hatred and looking towards the future.

Keiko said she would look into the past in order to see "the mistakes that were done and that should not be repreated again."
http://www.livinginperu.com/news/14685

[mosfeld]

I wonder if paramilitary salaries are included.


Peru to raise police and military salaries by 20 pct, announces Garcia

In a speech that surprised his own Defense Minister, yesterday Peru’s President Alan García announced salary increases for Peru’s military and national police force.

Starting May 1, military and police personnel will receive a 20% raise, and 25% for those injured during Peru’s fight against terrorism. The salary increases represents 720 million soles per year, or about 0.2% of Peru’s GDP.

Defense Minister Jaime Thorne, who was present at impromptu announcement by García, did not give details about how the salary increases would be financed, reports El Comercio. García made the announcement before a scheduled report on the restructure of police and military salaries and pensions, that planned for delivery on July 6 by the defense ministry.

“I’m convinced that the next administration will continue with the next four increases,” García said, alluding to a duplication of salaries.

García did not say if the raise would include retired personnel receiving a pension, nor did he give details as to limits of the increases.

According to 2010 salaries, an entry-level police officer earns S/. 1,242 monthly, about $440, while army soldiers start off earning S/. 1,474, about $530.

http://www.livinginperu.com/news/14713

[mosfeld]

If Humala is to win these elections and if we see Peru become ALBA-aligned, then contradictions between revisionists and Maoists will surely sharpen and intensify. There have been reports, however, that Humala has turned less "radical". Who knows what schemes Keiko has in mind, though. Probably some evil genius plot to get her father back into office.


CPI poll: Humala 40.6 pct; Keiko 36.8 pct

A new poll by CPI keeps presidential candidate nationalist Ollanta Humala as the front-runner with 40.6 percent followed by right-wing Keiko Fujimori with 36.8 percent nationwide, for the upcoming runoff that will take place on June 5.

This is the second poll made public after the presidential elections that took place on April 10. The first poll published by Ipsos-Apoyo, published last Sunday 24, gave Humala 42 percent and Fujimori 36 percent.

Almost eleven percent of the people polled are undecided about who will they vote for (10.7 percent), and 11.9 percent would vote blank or invalidated their vote.

As in the Ipsos-Apoyo poll, Keiko's strongest support comes from Lima where she has 40.2 percent, while Humala has 35.6 percent. The ex military officer continues to have his strongest support from the rest of the country, with 45 percent, while Keiko has 33.8 percent.

Humala's support is concentrated mainly in Peru's southern highlands (63.7 percent) and central highlands (49.1 percent), while Keiko's strongholds are in northern Peru (43.7 percent) and in Lima's provinces (Lima region with the exception of Lima city) (37.9 percent).

Likewise, Humala's support is higher among the rural population (49.4 percent) but also in the urban population (39.7 percent), as well as in the lower socio-economic classes (46.1 percent). Keiko has 37.1 percent of support among the urban population, and 33.8 in the rural population. Her strongest support comes from the high and middle socio-economic classes (39.6 percent).

When asked "who will you vote for?" 92 percent will vote for Humala and not change their vote option, while 86.8 percent will do so for Keiko and not change their vote option either. A surprisingly 22.1 percent of people answered they will decide their vote sometime between the day they were polled and the runoff day.

When people were asked "what candidate do you think will be elected regardless of who you vote for?" 49.3 percent think Humala will win, and 35.2 percent think Keiko will win.

Why am I voting for Humala or Keiko?

A majority think Humala is more fit to combat security and corruption issues in the country; 52.5 percent think Humala will fight corruption in the government and public institutions with more determination, while 27.3 percent think Keiko will do so. Likewise, 51.7 percent think Humala will fight with delinquency and crime with more determination, while 28.4 percent Keiko will do it better.

Despite the support to Humala, 50.9 percent fear that the ex military officer could trigger a regression in what has been achieved so far in the country, and 24.5 percent think that could happen with Keiko. As a result, 42.5 percent think that Keiko can generate more confidence for the country's development, while 38.4 percent think Humala will do so.

On governance issues, 42.7 percent think that Humala is the option for change in order to develop the country, and 38.1 percent think Keiko is that option. Likewise, 39.9 percent think Humala is more prepared to rule the country; 36.5 think Keiko is more prepared.

When it comes to employment, 41.2 percent think Keiko will generate more jobs, and 35.9 think Humala will do so. At the same time, 38.8 percent think Humala will raise the salaries of people with major needs in the country, and 37.5 percent think Keiko will do so. Keiko leads again with 44.2 percent when people are asked who will make more public works, while 34.5 think Humala will.

On the economic terrain, 39.9 percent think Keiko is more prepared to manage the economy of the country, while 33.7 percent think Humala is more prepared. Consequently, 48.7 percent think Keiko inspires more confidence for other countries to invest in Peru, while 29 percent think Humala will inspire that confidence.

The poll was answered by 1,800 people in 48 provinces of 18 regions of Peru, and conducted between April 20-24 of 2011.
http://www.livinginperu.com/news/14724

[mosfeld]

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/536/keoko.jpg
"MWAHAHA WRETCHED POOR OF PERU BEWARE, FUJIMORI DADDY GIRL IS COMING TO GET YOU"

(I realize this is very bad photoshopping, I did it in a hurry..)

[Reznov]

Did the Shining Path comment on or do any type of action on the choosing of the new president of Peru?

[mosfeld]

There have been no reports, but I'd say most likely