Political Report #1457 Pedro Castillo’s victory raises hopes beyond Peru
by Steve Ellner Posted by Canadian Dimension Peru's long-standing polarity between a large extension of coastal region, where the nation’s wealth is concentrated, and the much-neglected interior was on full display in the June 6 presidential election. But the polarity was not just geographical. It wasn't just that the winning candidate Pedro Castillo received the lion's share of his votes from the interior, known as the "Other Peru." Nor that Lima and other coastal cities favored Keiko Fujimori, particularly in middle class districts. The election also pitted two candidates with very dissimilar backgrounds against each other: Fujimori, a former First Lady and three-time presidential candidate with the solid support of the nation’s elite, against Castillo, who is the epitome of an outsider. Castillo, a primary school teacher since the age of 25, has never held an elected office. Castillo’s platform included a second agrarian reform (the first was passed by a nationalistic government in 1969), the possible nationalization of the nation’s gas reserves (second in quantity in Latin America), creation of a state-owned national airlines, and a constituent assembly to replace the constitution promulgated under Fujimori’s father Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s. In contrast, Keiko Fujimori, like her [...]