Keiko and Ollanta

If you want to read something that will affect more our future than the preceding post, you  can go and read the trashing that Jaime Bayly does to Vargas Llosa who had the temerity to chose Ollanta Humala over Keiko Fujimori.  Now, certainly Mario can chose whomever he wants for Peru, but after having said two weeks ago that having to chose between Ollanta and Keiko was like choosing between Cancer and AIDS it seems indeed a little bit indecent for him to choose this fast when he has still 1,5 months to make up his mind.  Not only he has all that time to make a rational decision, but someone with his notoriety should use that time  to sell himself to the highest political bidder in order to extract as many democratic guarantees from Keiko and Ollanta as possible.  As such Vargas Llosa endorsement is not only a major blunder for himself, showing him way more whimsical and impulsive than we would have thought, but it might even hurt Ollanta as Vargas Llosa is not the most popular politician in Peru.

Brazil in Peru (and elsewhere?)

Well, El Pais of Spain details for us that Brazil is quite involved in Peru's business and thus there is really no surprise behind the heavy support they provided to Humala.  If we add to this new intemperate words of Mario Vargas Llosa then Humala's chances are not only improving but he might get less scary.  The question here is to evaluate his real hold on the people behind him.  Lula had that "advantage", the PT had time long enough to develop a few local fiefdoms, powerful enough to have Lula as "their man in Brasilia" rather than the mighty leader having his men in the states....

Lessening the two evils

And thus the choice of Peru is becoming the choice of a continent.  We hoped for the last minute surprise of PPK edging Keiko Fujimori but it was not to happen.  And thus in what is almost a text book case of two extremes joining, a majority of Peruvians have voted for totally unacceptable extremes and they imposed upon the more civilized stock the nasty duty to chose the less stinky option they left us at the toilet of history.  See, I am already using "us" and I am not Peruvian.

Tonight I was very briefly watching Buenas Noches in Globovision, another example of shitty choice between utter idiocy and utter evil at VTV.  I watched it because as I was surfing I got there just as they started talking of Peru's election.  Kiko, in his unreconstructed superficial leftism said he was going to go for Humala while his side kick Carla Angola refused to take an outright stand, indicating as such that she was going to Keiko.  And thus was there the trap set by the left, that you could not possibly consider Keiko over Ollanta, because, you know, she is the daughter of a dictator...  You laugh?  Even Quico fell for that one, going as far as confusing a banal campaign clip as the dark designs of Keiko Fujimori.  It is fitting that this 11 of April I learned more about how come Chavez became president than I had learned in a long time.  See, Kiko Bautista was an open supporter of Chavez in 1998 while I was already telling to whomever cared to listen to me that Chavez was hell upon us.  And Quico Toro is a well known comeflor seen as stepping on his own toes occasionally.

Exit polls in Peru: worst case scenario becomes true!

UPDATED 2.   When I wrote yesterday about Peru I said that if Humala got more than 30% of the vote his chances for the second round would be believable.  First exit polls give him 31-32%.

Peru, encrypted chavismo and reelection as a curse

I did sort of follow the Peruvian election, but now I regret that I did not follow it closely as it has turned out to be quite interesting, and significant for the future of our region.  But first, let's dismiss the Peruvian election before we get into the real good stuff-