MEDIA REACTION: WESTERN HEMISPHERE: ELECTIONS IN PERU; SAO

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000374 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: WESTERN HEMISPHERE: ELECTIONS IN PERU; SAO PAULO ¶1. "Peruvian Elections" Liberal Folha de S. Paulo (4/6) editorialized: "The prospect of candidate Ollanta Humala being elected president in Peru is worrisome. Although he presents himself as a leftist nationalist, it seems more correct to describe him as an ultranationalist with strong authoritarian trends. He promised to ban foreign companies from operating in 'strategic' sectors and to review fiscal incentives given to mining companies in addition to industrializing coca leaf production. Some analysts have accused him of hiding his true ideas, which are somewhat delusionary and even racist. They say that he plans to recreate the Inca Empire as democracy exclusively for indigenous and mestizo people. When in the military, Humala was involved in the violent repression of members of the also violent Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group.... If he actually wins, Humala will reach the power without any party structure to support him, as happened with his immediate predecessors Alberto Fujimori and Alejandro Toledo. And the combination of radical ideas with a weak political and institutional environment has never had a happy end." ¶2. "Left And Right" Political analyst Demetrio Magnoli wrote in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (4/6): "Ollanta Humala has been openly praised by [Presidents] Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, in addition to receiving discreet support from President Lula. The media is treating him as part of a 'leftist wave' in Latin America. However, Humala is a rare species: he is what is closest to fascism in this part of the world.... Humala has recently begun waving the Bolivarian flag in his discourse. But this is an artificial element of a foreign policy vision of which the real 'Homeland' is an 'integration' of Peru and Bolivia into a state replacing the Inca Empire." McMullen