April 9, 2016
The progressive presidential hopeful is the sole left alternative in Peru’s neoliberal and corruption-plagued election.
As allegations of corruption swirl around Peru’s presidential front-runner Keiko Fujimori in the final weeks of the campaign and questions of electoral fairness threaten to overshadow the political debate, progressive candidate Veronika Mendoza has surged in the polls as a serious alternative to the status quo.
Mendoza’s Broad Front has pushed a platform based on tackling inequality and curbing the power of multinationals while promising to rewrite the country’s 1993 Fujimori-era constitution. Her proposals have lit up the campaign with a stark contrast to those of the two other front-runners, conservative Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, and neoliberal Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Wall Street economist and former minister under Alejandro Toledo’s privatization-focused presidency.
The latest polls show Fujimori with 34 percent, Kuczynski with 16.8 percent, and Mendoza with 15.5 percent.
Her rise in popularity also comes against a backdrop of widespread accusations of electoral fraud, biased application of election rules, and the leak of the Panama Papers, implicating four of her fellow presidential candidates in offshore schemes, including Fujimori and Kuczynski.
Fraud Looms Large in Presidential Race
In recent weeks, key decisions by electoral authorities have cast serious doubt on the fairness of the elections, compounding a blow to democracy already leveled by widespread corruption.
At least five presidential candidates, excluding Mendoza, have been linked to cocaine money as so-called narco-candidates, four presidential candidates have been implicated in the Panama Papers offshore tax haven scandal, and multiple candidates have faced possible exclusion from the race over allegations of vote-buying and other violations. At the center of the corruption is Keiko Fujimori.
The presidential front-runner, whose father is serving 25 years in jail for human rights crimes and corruption, was caught on video being involved in events offering cash “prizes” linked to her campaign. But authorities ruled to keep Fujimori in the race, despite cries of bias after Cesar Acuña was axed from the ballot just weeks before over similar charges.
Fujimori was also linked to the Panama Papers through key financial backers who hid and laundered funds in offshore tax havens and shell companies. Kuczynski and two other presidential candidates were also implicated in the leak.
While Mendoza is clean of such corruption allegations, as the campaign’s progressive candidate she has been the target of fierce attacks and a “dirty war” against her candidacy. She has been called “anti-mining,” a “terrorist,” and “chavista,” smearing her support of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. She has rejected claims that she would push Peru towards becoming a carbon-copy of Venezuela, and has also criticized the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Attacks have also accused Mendoza of being a repeat of first lady Nadine Herrera, who has faced investigations for alleged money laundering. Mendoza has distanced herself from the first lady, citing the fact that she was first to defect from the party when it veered to the right.
A Return of the Pink Tide in Peru?
Mendoza has aligned herself with the Latin American pink tide by expressing support for the foreign policy approach championed by Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, founded on principles of regional integration and anti-imperialism. She is also opposed to the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership and has vowed to revise all free trade agreements in the name of strengthening Peruvian sovereignty against the power of multinational corporations.
She has promised to strengthen labor laws, fight for women’s rights, tackle inequality, and tightening up environmental regulations and oversight of mining operations in the country’s resource-based economy. Following in the footsteps of Venezuela and Ecuador, she has also proposed a larger role for the country’s state oil company, Petroperu, in the economy.
Mendoza has contrasted herself to current President Ollanta Humala, who, despite progressive policies, failed to steer Peru away from its neoliberal path. After running with Humala’s Nationalist Party in 2011, Mendoza broke with the president, rejecting his shift to the right once in power.
Gunning for Peru’s Top Office
Mendoza has made remarkable progress in the polls, surging into a tie for second place after barely registering in the early days of the campaign. While she remains neck-in-neck with Kuczynski, she is the only candidate who has seen support jump in the polls, while her main rival has stayed relatively stagnant.
With Fujimori significantly ahead but still short of the 50 percent needed to secure an outright win in the first round, the race for Peru’s top office will inevitably pass to a runoff vote.
Despite Fujimori’s strong core of support giving her a solid lead in the first round, a second round scenario will be tempered by a staunch anti-Fujimori vote, which could very well yield a win for her opponent, whether Mendoza of Kuczynski. Fujimori lost to President Ollanta Humala in a runoff vote in 2011 after coming in second in the first round.
Like the 2011 race, in which Humala was seen as the left-wing alternative despite his later shift to the right, a runoff between conservative Fujimori and progressive Mendoza would be a polemical and polarized race.
A Fujimori-Mendoza ballot would mark the first time in Latin America that two women battle in a runoff for a country’s top office. While that in itself will be historic, the election of a left alternative in Peru after years of neoliberal policies would truly mark a historical shift in the South American country.
Source: teleSur