Friday, June 10, 2011
Razor-thin victory for Humala in Peru
Ollanta Humala (48), a former Army officer and firebrand Leftwing candidate in Peru's presidential election, has snatched a razor-thin victory over Keiko Fujimori (36), daughter of the disgraced former President, Alberto Fujimori. With close to 85 per cent of the votes counted by Monday morning local time, Mr. Humala was said to have garnered 50.7 per cent of the votes while Ms. Fujimori had 49.29 per cent.
Ms. Fujimori, whose father is serving out a jail term over corruption and human rights abuses, refused to concede defeat outright, saying: “If the official results by the National Electoral Council confirm the difference of votes seen in the quick count then I will be the first one in recognising those results as I said from the beginning.”
A jubilant Mr. Humala said in a victory speech to supporters that “we will build a national consultation government”.
The two presidential campaigns had been blackened by mudslinging and “dirty tricks”, raising serious doubts on both candidates' ability to keep Peru on a stable path of growth with democracy.
At the heart of the electoral battle was the question of economic development, in particular the need to distribute wealth from the country's abundant mineral resources among the poorer sections of the population.
Mr. Humala, who lost a 2006 election runoff against outgoing President Alan Garcia after aligning himself closely with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has subsequently toned down his rhetoric. His biggest campaign challenge this time around was in persuading voters that he would “share wealth more equally without frightening investors”. The results suggest he has succeeded. Mr. Humala was said to have won “overwhelming support from impoverished indigenous voters in Andean highlands who feel left out by Peru's mining-driven economic boom”.
Ms. Fujimori retained her popularity in the capital Lima, primarily among voters from the business community and the private sector. While many voters were said to view both her and Mr. Humala as “dangerous demagogues”, Ms. Fujimori's promise to drop a pledge to pardon her father appeared to boost her prospects.
However, now that victory is in his grasp, Mr. Humala will have to strike a balance with other Latin American heads of state. While he has repeatedly underscored the differences between his policy agenda and that of Mr. Chavez, he has also closely linked his image to that of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Yet Mr. Chavez and other left-of-centre leaders such as Bolivian President Evo Morales continue to play a key role in regional politics. They have already described Mr. Humala's victory as a “result of the people's struggle for dignity and sovereignty”.
Labels: Hugo Chavez, Ollanta Humala victory, Peruvian presidential polls
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Venezuela-Colombia spat intensifies
From The Hindu
What started out as a war of words between President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, even as far back as 2007, has now become an open diplomatic conflict in a multilateral forum and threatens to escalate into something worse.
The most recent round of hostilities between the two countries was sparked off at a meeting of the Organisation of American States in Washington earlier this week, when Colombian Ambassador Luis Hoyos, produced what he alleged was documentary evidence that Venezuela was housing camps of the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on its soil.
In an immediate response, President Chávez severed ties with Colombia describing the Colombian accusations as a “United States-inspired aggression”. Speaking on state television Mr. Chávez said, “We have no other choice but, out of dignity, to totally break our relations with our brother nation of Colombia,” he said on state television.
In a sharp response to the cut-off in diplomatic ties, Mr. Hoyos, called it a “historic mistake”, adding that Venezuela should instead be breaking relations with the “gangs that kidnap and kill and traffic drugs”.
Hinting that there could be a deeper subtext, Mr. Chávez went on to argue that Colombia could be trying to provoke a war, indeed that American officials were “using Colombia to portray him as a supporter of terrorist groups to justify a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela”. He also reportedly said that the photographs that Mr. Hoyos procured at the OAS meet were not authentic and noted that Venezuela had done everything possible to prevent Colombian rebels from crossing into its territory.
Washington, which has traditionally been critical of the Chávez regime, attacked the Venezuelan President’s actions. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley described them as “unfortunate” and a “petulant response by Venezuela to cut off relations with Colombia”. He added that if Venezuela failed to cooperate in whatever follow-on steps are made, “the U.S. and other countries will obviously take account of that”.
Mr. Crowley further said, Venezuela had “very clear responsibilities” to combat terrorism in the region and to support efforts by the OAS and the United Nations to fight terrorism especially given the U.S.’ “concerns about the links between Venezuela and the FARC” and the fact that Washington had not certified Venezuela in recent years as fully cooperating its antiterrorism efforts.
Indicating the U.S.’ support of President Uribe’s accusations he added, “These were serious fact-based charges that Colombia made yesterday at the OAS and they deserve to be fully investigated.”
Labels: Álvaro Uribe, Colombia, Hugo Chavez, State Department, U.S., Venezuela
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Toppling the Boligarchy
From The Hindu
Hugo Chavez’s government has once again demonstrated its willingness to halt the march of untrammelled capitalist growth in Venezuela. On November 30, his government shut down four medium-sized banks facing financial insolvency; three more followed suit by the end of the week. In an industry-wide crackdown aimed at protecting ordinary deposit-holders, 27 arrest warrants were issued including several for financiers behind the failed banks. These individuals belong to a group of politically connected big businessmen known as “Boligarchs,” after their close ties to President Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution. The arrest that made headlines was that of Arné Chacón, president of the failed Banco Real and brother of Jesse Chacón, Venezuela’s Science and Technology Minister. Minister Chacón soon handed in his resignation, which Mr. Chavez accepted last week, saying: “We are demonstrating that there are no untouchables here.” The arrest of Boligarch Ricardo Fernandez Barrueco further signalled the President’s intention to purge the economy of those who prospered at the expense of the masses. Mr. Barrueco became a billionaire supplying corn and transport services to government-subsidised supermarkets.
The crackdown flies in the face of allegations by the United States and its allies that the Chavez regime is corrupt, populist, and dangerous to mainstream market institutions. In part, western insecurity has been fuelled by Venezuela’s bold approach towards the global oil economy. For example, in 2008, it took on Exxon Mobil — the world’s largest private company — and won against it in British courts in a dispute over oilfields in the Orinoco basin. The U.S. is also hostile to Mr. Chavez’s pursuit of an alternative paradigm in global politics, one in which resource-rich countries like Venezuela, Iran, China, and Russia forge close links based on trade in oil, weapons technology, and agricultural products. Yet the western bloc must concede that the toppling of the Boligarchs is testimony to the Venezuelan leader’s willingness to tackle corruption in high office. While Washington’s hostility towards the Chavez administration peaked during the Bush years, President Obama has an opportunity to repair and normalise the relationship. This would be politically expedient, especially since the people of Venezuela voted overwhelmingly, in a referendum in February, in favour of allowing Mr. Chavez to run for office again in 2012. Mending fences with this charismatic leader from Latin America would have positive effects and implications going beyond the region.
Labels: Boligarchs, capitalist growth, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, Venezuela
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