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This is Ollanta Humala (Native american name and surname btw)
LIMA, Peru --When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race.
Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America -- or, worse, a military dictator in the making.
Two days later at a news conference in Lima, Humala urged Peru's leftist parties to join his "nationalist project" and laid out policies that would make fundamental changes in Peru's free-market economy.
Wearing a green military-style jacket and an Andean Indian scarf, Humala also proclaimed deep admiration for the 1968-75 leftist dictatorship of Peruvian Gen. Juan Velasco, who carried out a largely failed agrarian reform, nationalized industries and forged close military ties with the Soviet Union.
"You could question his macroeconomics, but Velasco gave dignity to the people who lived in the countryside," Humala said, referring to Velasco's reforms, which freed rural workers from serf-like conditions on large estates.
Humala, 43, has risen strongly in opinion polls heading toward April's presidential election, moving into a tight contest with conservative former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores.
Public opinion analysts say his rapid rise -- from 5 percent in August to 23 percent in December -- is based largely on voters' disgust with Peru's political parties, which are widely viewed as corrupt.
Humala's economic plans unsettle many in the middle and upper classes. And some voters worry that members of his Indian-descended family are avowed racists and ultranationalists.
His father describes himself as a Marxist, expresses admiration for Hitler and believes Peru's Indians and mestizos should rule.
Humala insists he does not share their extremist beliefs
Many Peruvians, especially the poor majority who feel they have not participated in Peru's solid economic growth of recent years, see Humala as the tough military man the country needs to punish the corrupt and impose order.
Humala views himself in the same light.
"Due to my military experience I believe we need discipline in the country, discipline and order," he told The Associated Press in an interview, sitting beneath a map of Peru at his spartan campaign headquarters. "What we have in Peru is the law of the jungle. Corruption abounds. The Peruvian state is corrupt and must be reinvented."
Humala burst into the spotlight when he and his brother, Antauro, a former army major, led some 70 followers in a short-lived military rebellion in October 2000, a month before President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic 10-year regime collapsed in a corruption scandal. Humala was later pardoned by Congress.
He has taken on the mantle of the anti-establishment newcomer, a role that Fujimori, a university dean, played to the hilt to get elected in 1990. Current President Alejandro Toledo, a close U.S. ally who is barred from running again, also ran as an outsider in 2001, becoming the country's first elected leader of Indian descent.
Many Peruvians disenchanted with Toledo's weak leadership had hoped for a return of Fujimori and his tough style, which helped end the economic chaos of the 1980s and defeat leftist guerrillas. But they have turned to Humala since Fujimori's November arrest in Chile, where he is fighting extradition to Peru on a dozen counts of human rights abuses and corruption.
In the interview, Humala scorned his opponents. "None of them offers hope for a true change in Peru," he said.
Humala said he would impose greater state control over the economy and give preference to Peruvian investors over foreign capital. He wants to boost taxes and royalties on foreign mining operations and take at least a 49 percent share for the government in Peru's giant Camisea natural gas fields, which are now run by a consortium of foreign companies.
But Humala said he differs from Velasco's dictatorship in that he does not believe in "expropriating property or limiting freedom of expression."
A key concern for Washington is the illicit growing of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.
Like Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, an Indian activist who is a coca farmer, Humala said he does not support the U.S.-financed eradication of coca because it hurts poor farm families. "They're human beings trying to do the best for their children," he said.
He said he would battle drug trafficking in other ways.
Humala said he is not anti-American and hopes to have good relations with Washington.
"The only thing we want is to build a nation with dignity that will be respected and not a government like Mr. Toledo's that lets others walk over it," he said.
This is Alan Garcia
Former president of Peru from 1985 to 1990
from wiki
Despite his initial popularity among Peruvian voters, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% between July 1985 and July 1990, thereby profoundly destabilizing the Peruvian economy.
Owing to such chronic inflation, the Peruvian currency, the sol, was replaced by the Inti in mid-1985, which itself was replaced the nuevo sol ("new sol") in July 1991, at which time the new sol had a cumulative value of one billion(1,000,000,000) old soles. During his administration, the per capita annual income of Peruvians fell to $720 (below the level of 1960) and Peru's Gross Domestic Product dropped 20%. By the end of his term, national reserves were a negative $900 million.
According to studies of the INEI and PNUD[1], around the start of his presidency, 41.6% of peruvians lived in poverty. During his presidency, more than five million Peruvians were added to the ranks of the poor. The percentage increased 23% (to 55%) in 1991.
García also made an attempt to nationalize the banking and insurance industries. He incurred the wrath of the IMF and the financial community by unilaterally declaring a ceiling on debt repayment equal to 10% of GNP, thereby isolating Peru from the international financial world until García's successor, Alberto Fujimori, resolved the matter in the early 1990s.
The economic turbulence of the time excerbated social tensions in Peru and partly contributed to the rise of the violent rebel movement Shining Path, which had begun attacking electric towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, committing human rights violations which are still under investigation. These include the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned to death by the Peruvian armed forces in August 1985, the Cayara massacre (May 1988) in which some thirty were killed and dozens disappeared, and the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986. According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced disappearances took place during García's presidency.
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Ollanta Humala got 30% of the Votes, Alan Garcia 24,96%
In 30 days elections again to choose for one of those 2, altough the difference between the third candidate and Alan Garcia is so small (half a % point) that Ballotage between Humala and Garcia aint 100% sure.
LIMA, Peru --When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race.
Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America -- or, worse, a military dictator in the making.
Two days later at a news conference in Lima, Humala urged Peru's leftist parties to join his "nationalist project" and laid out policies that would make fundamental changes in Peru's free-market economy.
Wearing a green military-style jacket and an Andean Indian scarf, Humala also proclaimed deep admiration for the 1968-75 leftist dictatorship of Peruvian Gen. Juan Velasco, who carried out a largely failed agrarian reform, nationalized industries and forged close military ties with the Soviet Union.
"You could question his macroeconomics, but Velasco gave dignity to the people who lived in the countryside," Humala said, referring to Velasco's reforms, which freed rural workers from serf-like conditions on large estates.
Humala, 43, has risen strongly in opinion polls heading toward April's presidential election, moving into a tight contest with conservative former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores.
Public opinion analysts say his rapid rise -- from 5 percent in August to 23 percent in December -- is based largely on voters' disgust with Peru's political parties, which are widely viewed as corrupt.
Humala's economic plans unsettle many in the middle and upper classes. And some voters worry that members of his Indian-descended family are avowed racists and ultranationalists.
His father describes himself as a Marxist, expresses admiration for Hitler and believes Peru's Indians and mestizos should rule.
Humala insists he does not share their extremist beliefs
Many Peruvians, especially the poor majority who feel they have not participated in Peru's solid economic growth of recent years, see Humala as the tough military man the country needs to punish the corrupt and impose order.
Humala views himself in the same light.
"Due to my military experience I believe we need discipline in the country, discipline and order," he told The Associated Press in an interview, sitting beneath a map of Peru at his spartan campaign headquarters. "What we have in Peru is the law of the jungle. Corruption abounds. The Peruvian state is corrupt and must be reinvented."
Humala burst into the spotlight when he and his brother, Antauro, a former army major, led some 70 followers in a short-lived military rebellion in October 2000, a month before President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic 10-year regime collapsed in a corruption scandal. Humala was later pardoned by Congress.
He has taken on the mantle of the anti-establishment newcomer, a role that Fujimori, a university dean, played to the hilt to get elected in 1990. Current President Alejandro Toledo, a close U.S. ally who is barred from running again, also ran as an outsider in 2001, becoming the country's first elected leader of Indian descent.
Many Peruvians disenchanted with Toledo's weak leadership had hoped for a return of Fujimori and his tough style, which helped end the economic chaos of the 1980s and defeat leftist guerrillas. But they have turned to Humala since Fujimori's November arrest in Chile, where he is fighting extradition to Peru on a dozen counts of human rights abuses and corruption.
In the interview, Humala scorned his opponents. "None of them offers hope for a true change in Peru," he said.
Humala said he would impose greater state control over the economy and give preference to Peruvian investors over foreign capital. He wants to boost taxes and royalties on foreign mining operations and take at least a 49 percent share for the government in Peru's giant Camisea natural gas fields, which are now run by a consortium of foreign companies.
But Humala said he differs from Velasco's dictatorship in that he does not believe in "expropriating property or limiting freedom of expression."
A key concern for Washington is the illicit growing of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.
Like Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, an Indian activist who is a coca farmer, Humala said he does not support the U.S.-financed eradication of coca because it hurts poor farm families. "They're human beings trying to do the best for their children," he said.
He said he would battle drug trafficking in other ways.
Humala said he is not anti-American and hopes to have good relations with Washington.
"The only thing we want is to build a nation with dignity that will be respected and not a government like Mr. Toledo's that lets others walk over it," he said.
This is Alan Garcia
Former president of Peru from 1985 to 1990
from wiki
Despite his initial popularity among Peruvian voters, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% between July 1985 and July 1990, thereby profoundly destabilizing the Peruvian economy.
Owing to such chronic inflation, the Peruvian currency, the sol, was replaced by the Inti in mid-1985, which itself was replaced the nuevo sol ("new sol") in July 1991, at which time the new sol had a cumulative value of one billion(1,000,000,000) old soles. During his administration, the per capita annual income of Peruvians fell to $720 (below the level of 1960) and Peru's Gross Domestic Product dropped 20%. By the end of his term, national reserves were a negative $900 million.
According to studies of the INEI and PNUD[1], around the start of his presidency, 41.6% of peruvians lived in poverty. During his presidency, more than five million Peruvians were added to the ranks of the poor. The percentage increased 23% (to 55%) in 1991.
García also made an attempt to nationalize the banking and insurance industries. He incurred the wrath of the IMF and the financial community by unilaterally declaring a ceiling on debt repayment equal to 10% of GNP, thereby isolating Peru from the international financial world until García's successor, Alberto Fujimori, resolved the matter in the early 1990s.
The economic turbulence of the time excerbated social tensions in Peru and partly contributed to the rise of the violent rebel movement Shining Path, which had begun attacking electric towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, committing human rights violations which are still under investigation. These include the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned to death by the Peruvian armed forces in August 1985, the Cayara massacre (May 1988) in which some thirty were killed and dozens disappeared, and the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986. According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced disappearances took place during García's presidency.
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Ollanta Humala got 30% of the Votes, Alan Garcia 24,96%
In 30 days elections again to choose for one of those 2, altough the difference between the third candidate and Alan Garcia is so small (half a % point) that Ballotage between Humala and Garcia aint 100% sure.
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