Free Republic

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: The IRGC's point man in Peru, Edwar Quiroga "Hussein" Vargas is hard at work these days trying to breath life into not-so-large-or-widespread anti-government protests."

Peru’s Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat in yesterday’s presidential election to Ollanta Humala, who won a narrow victory as voters overlooked his past support for Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and rallied behind his pledges to stamp out corruption and extend a mining boom to the nation’s poor. Fujimori, speaking to reporters in Lima, said she will lead a responsible opposition and “build bridges” with Humula’s government. She said she will offer him her personal congratulations in a meeting later today. “I recognize his triumph,” said the 36-year-old congresswoman. “It’s important that the country continues its economic course and that it has clear...

Peruvian opposition candidate Ollanta Humala is headed to victory over Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori in the Andean nation’s presidential runoff, according to a quick count of ballots and three exit polls. Humala won 51.5 percent compared with 48.5 percent for Fujimori, according to a quick count of 91 percent of ballots at selected polling stations nationwide by Lima-based researcher Ipsos-Apoyo.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Hugo Chavez has been accused of using Venezuela's oil riches to meddle in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Now, Peru's president says the Venezuelan leader may be doing it here by funding militants and anti-poverty centers that preach populist revolution. In recent weeks, Peruvian police have arrested nine people the government alleges are militants bankrolled by Venezuela. And the head of a Congressional investigatory committee accused Venezuela of supplying funds to outreach centers he says agitate against the government. President Alan Garcia supports the ongoing investigation into the centers. Venezuela and allies Bolivia and Ecuador "want...

Garcia regains Peru presidency in runoff RICK VECCHIO, Associated Press Writer Former President Alan Garcia staged a remarkable political comeback in Peru's runoff election, beating a retired army lieutenant to regain control of the country 16 years after his first term ended in economic ruin and rebel violence. Garcia's victory Sunday was a blow to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had endorsed Ollanta Humala, a political upstart many Peruvians saw as dangerous to democracy. "I want our party this time to demonstrate to the Peruvian people, who have called it to the highest responsibilities, that it will not convert the...

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Left-of-center former President Alan Garcia led a run-off election on Sunday, exit polls showed, staging a huge political comeback after his 1980s government ended in economic ruin, rebel violence and accusations of rights abuses. Garcia had 52.8 percent of the vote, compared to 47.2 percent for ex-army nationalist Ollanta Humala, according to an exit poll released by respected firm Apoyo. A Datum exit poll gave Garcia 54.9 percent versus 45.1 percent for Humala. A Garcia victory would undermine efforts by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to take advantage of a populist tide in Latin America to challenge...

Garcia 52.8%, Humala 47.2%

Alan García looked to be on course to win a narrow victory in presidential election in Peru on Sunday, according to an early “quick count” released minutes after polls closed. Mr García, a populist former president, had 52.8 per cent of the vote, ahead of Ollanta Humala, his radical nationalist rival in the presidential race, who polled 47.2. per cent in a sample of votes counted by Apoyo, the country’s most respected pollster. “We seem to have a probable winner,” said Alfredo Torres, head of Apoyo, the country’s most respected pollster, which conducted the quick count. In comments to the...

Peruvians elect a president By TYLER BRIDGEStbridges@MiamiHerald.com June 4, 2006 LIMA - Some 16 million Peruvians began voting at 8 a.m. this morning (Central Standard Time) to select their next president. They have a stark choice: center-left Alan García, a former president, or ultra-nationalist leftist Ollanta Humala, a retired lieutenant colonel. It is an unappealing choice for nearly half the voters. García's presidency 20 years ago ended with food shortages, hyperinflation, accusations of corruption and a spreading insurgency by the Shining Path guerrilla. García, 57, said he has learned from his mistakes. Humala has provoked fears that he will turn...

Alan García is worried -- and with reason. The former Peruvian president has stated that Hugo Chávez is intent on conquering Latin America with a mighty stream of petrodollars. It is obvious that García's rival, Comandante Ollanta Humala, is Caracas' candidate.Chávez would love to duplicate in Lima the success he achieved in La Paz with Evo Morales' triumph. In Nicaragua, comrade Daniel Ortega receives crude oil and urea -- a nitrogenated fertilizer -- so Sandinistas may spread this electoral booty among their supporters and buy votes in the brazenest tradition of graft.In Mexico meanwhile, the PAN and the PRI have...

Bolivia's President Evo Morales has met with Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala ahead of Peru's upcoming presidential runoff election. The meeting between the two leftist political leaders took place Monday in the Bolivian town of Copacabana near the Peruvian border. Mr. Morales invited Mr. Humala to attend the inauguration of an eye clinic in the town, funded by money from Cuba. Cuban President Fidel Castro's government has been training Bolivian eye doctors to provide treatment at the new clinic. Hundreds of Bolivians greeted Mr. Morales and Mr. Humala at the ceremony, chanting revolutionary slogans and waving Cuban and Bolivian flags....

Latin America: It looks like Peru's election will bring a new leftist strongman to the region. That's sad, given how much progress Peru has made in recent years. There's still tallying to do. But if trends continue, the winner will be far-left Ollanta Humala, followed by Peru's disastrous ex-president, Alan Garcia. The unpromising pair will face off for a final round in May. Hard to say which would be worse. Humala's a verified human-rights violator who tortured peasants as an army officer in the 1990s. He's also an admirer of dictators, like Peru's last one, Juan Velasco, remembered in the...

The first round of the Peruvian elections has turned Ollanta Humala, a nationalist former military officer and strong admirer of Hugo Chávez, into the leading force in Peruvian politics, with about 30 percent of the vote. It is not one hundred percent clear who will face him in the runoff because the vote is not yet fully counted, but former president Alan García, a socialist, has a tiny edge over Lourdes Flores, the pro-business, center-right candidate. Against what many wishful thinkers are predicting, I think Humala is going to be hard to stop even if he gets only 30 percent...

A FIERY populist who is deeply critical of the United States looks set to top the polls in today’s Peruvian presidential election, in the latest manifestation of Latin America’s embrace of left-wing anti-Washington politics. Ollanta Humala, 42, a former army officer, was predicted to secure 29.2% of the vote ahead of his nearest rival, Lourdes Flores, a conservative pro-business former congresswoman, on 25.6%, and Alan Garcia, the former centre-left president, on 21.9%, according to a poll by Lima University. The two highest placed candidates will go into a run-off, but analysts said that Humala would find it hard to defeat...

A recent interview with Ollanta Humala, the anti-free market former army officer who is leading in the polls in Sunday's presidential election in Peru, left me with two basic impressions: He's more articulate than I thought and much more like radical populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez than I suspected. Why do I say that? Not just because Chávez has openly endorsed him. It's because -- either by coincidence or because he may be listening to his Venezuelan friends -- he comes across as following Chávez's script very closely. Like Chávez, Humala is a former lieutenant colonel who first drew public...

Peru's dynasty-in-waiting prepares to deliver another anti-US president By Jeremy McDermott in Lima (Filed: 09/03/2006) One of Latin America's most extraordinary political families is poised to produce another of the continent's Left-wing authoritarian leaders with no love for Washington. Ollanta Humala is one of two favourites to become Peru's next president, a role for which, to believe his mother, he has been groomed from birth. Ollanta Humala: ‘I am a nationalist and anti-imperialist’ "We have been preparing our children to take power since they were born," Elena Tasso has said of her eight progeny. "If the boys are not successful...

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- 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, Peru -- President Alejandro Toledo's decision to put the country under a state of emergency last week has made at least one man happy -- Antauro Humala. A former major in Peru's army, Humala is building a left-wing party intent on taking power in this country of 26 million, either by ballots in the 2006 presidential election or by what he calls "unconventional" means before then. Either way, he said, "our goal is to run the country." Political analysts are monitoring the Humala party. While they remain unsure whether its populist, anti-globalization message resonates with city dwellers, they suspect...