Peru's Humala Closes Gap With Flores in Apoyo Presidential Poll

[bemildred]

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Peruvian nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala closed the gap with front-runner Lourdes Flores in polling ahead of April's election.

Humala, leader of the Peruvian Nationalist Party, rose to 30 percent voter support from 26 percent in a poll finished March 10, Lima-based polling firm Apoyo Opinion y Mercado said. Backing for Flores fell to 31 percent from 33 percent from Apoyo's previous poll Feb. 24, while former President Alan Garcia's support was unchanged 22 percent, Apoyo said.

Apoyo surveyed 2,000 people in 79 provinces from March 8 to 10. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Flores, 46, a lawyer and former congresswoman, backs free- market policies and a trade agreement with the U.S. Humala, 42, a former army lieutenant colonel who took over a mine owned by Southern Copper Corp. in a revolt against Fujimori in October 2000, proposes higher corporate taxes, renegotiation of oil and mining contracts and limits on foreign investment.

Sound familiar?

Bloomberg

[Peace Patriot]

1. Yup, it's very similar to what recently happened in Bolivia, which just

elected its first indigenous Indian as president, Evo Morales, after a grass roots uprising against Bechtel--which had privatized the water in one Bolivian city and then jacked up prices to the poor. The Bolivians threw Bechtel out of their country, and elected Evo--who campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck, a sacred plant necessary to survival in the cold, high altitudes of the Andes, and symbol of resistance against the murderous U.S. "war on drugs." Morales' parents were coca leaf growers. He is a "man of the people" who refuses to wear a suit--and like most South American leaders now, he is a leftist and a socialist. He was given a special ceremony prior to his inauguration by ten thousand indigenous people who came down out of the mountains.

This was a tremendous victory for South America's indigenous population, which has been oppressed by the rich fascist elite in alliance with the worst of the U.S.--death squads, assassinations, support for heinous dictators, U.S. corporate exploitation--for centuries.

I think Peru will elect Ollanta Humala. The trend in South America is overwhelmingly to the left. This trend is based on years of hard work by grass roots activists, civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center on TRANSPARENT elections. (U.S., take note! Transparent elections = good government. Non-transparent elections = the Bush junta.) Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia have all elected leftist or socialist governments in the last several years--Peru is next. And the trend is moving north--Mexico is likely going to elect a leftist as president this year (the mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as "Amlo."). These governments have common themes: self-determination, regional alliances and alliances abroad that are independent of the U.S., fairness and equity in economic and social policy, anti-'free trade,' anti-US corporate/World Bank, and anti-Bush and his dreadful war on Iraq.

In Chile, they just elected their first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet, who was tortured by the U.S.-backed dictator Pinochet, and lost her family to that junta. In Venezuela, of course, they have elected and re-elected Hugo Chavez--despite every effort of the Bushites to oust him, including a U.S. supported coup attempt. Brazil's president is a former steel worker--Lula da Silva (known as "Lulu")--who led the third world rebellion at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun several years ago.

This is a profound and unstoppable revolution in Latin America. It is deeply rooted, peaceful and democratic. Fascist, U.S.-supported regimes like Columbia are becoming very isolated. This not to say that the Bushites cannot cause a lot of trouble. They can. But they will not succeed. They are battling an overwhelming democratic trend, which we can only hope moves even further north.

Viva Ollanta! Viva Evo! Viva Michele! Viva Hugo! Viva Lulu! Viva Amlo!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Humala was dealt a Rove-like setback recently when his opposition

spread the rumor he had lead a death squad against his own people. He took a dent in the polls until people started sorting it out.

Sounds like he's bouncing right back.

So glad to see this article, bemildred. It's great news.

[Judi Lynn]

3. For those who've seen everything:Merrill Recommends Selling Peruvian Bonds

Merrill Recommends Selling Peruvian Bonds, Buying Colombia Debt
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co. recommended investors cut their holdings of Peruvian bonds after the rise of nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala in polls for the April presidential election.

New York-based Merrill, the world's largest securities firm, lowered the recommendation on Peruvian bonds to market weight from overweight, which it had last set on Jan. 23, said Felipe Illanes, fixed-income strategist, in a report dated March 13, 2006. Merrill also increased its recommended allocation of Colombian bonds in its emerging-market debt portfolio to overweight from market weight.

Peruvian markets tumbled yesterday after Humala, campaigning for higher taxes and tighter limits on foreign investment, closed the gap with front-runner Lourdes Flores in a national opinion poll. Peruvians elect a new president next month.

``While we still see better odds of a Flores win, the poll result was unexpected and could prompt greater market uncertainty regarding Peru's outlook,'' Illanes said in the report.
(snip/...)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aVtirh7PceZA&refer=latin_america