Peruvian presidential contender backed by radical, antigay family

[arcos]

Peruvian presidential contender backed by radical, antigay family

Peruvian television talk show host Jaime Bayly uses irony and a stinging wit to jab at his guests on his program The Sharpshooter. But these days he's the one who's feeling on the defensive.

Bayly is open about being bisexual, and that, he says, has led to death threats from the homophobic parents of Ollanta Humala, the retired army officer who is favored in Sunday's presidential elections in Peru's capital of Lima, which will go to a second round in May if no candidate wins 50% of the vote.

<snip>


Bayly had wanted to get Humala on his show to ask about, among other things, accusations of human rights violations allegedly perpetrated during Humala's 1992 command of a jungle counterinsurgency base. Humala, who denies any wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a smear campaign, turned down the invitation.

Bayly, 41, a prize-winning novelist, said that when he sent a reporter to invite Humala's parents to his show, the father responded: "Tell that queer we're not going to his program and when we're in the government, we're going to have him shot."

<snip>

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid28867.asp

[Judi Lynn]

1. Humala Uses Nationalism, Populism To Lead

Humala Uses Nationalism, Populism To Lead In Peru's Presidential Campaign

Posted on Sunday, April 02 2006 13:26:34 PDT by Intellpuke
Read 6 times

In a presidential campaign filled with symbolism, the front-runner here found a perfect image for his hard-charging crusade: on Tuesday, he jumped on a chestnut mare and, with his followers sprinting behind him, galloped to the central plaza of Moquegua to promise to revolutionize this Andean country.

The candidate is Ollanta Humala, 43, who was seeking to evoke the image of the authoritarian man on horseback known as the caudillo. He says that if elected on April 9, he will waste no time before cracking down on the multinationals he says cheat citizens and arresting the crooked politicians he says have plundered Peru. As the leader of the newly formed Nationalist Party, he also says he will ally himself with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who wants to form a bulwark against the Bush administration.

Humala, whose first name means "warrior who sees all," is as populist as they come on a continent that has been swept by leftist leaders mining popular discontent with free-market policies and suspicions of the United States. His antiglobalization stance and talk of transforming the economy provoke fear in the entrepreneurial class; the stock market suffered its biggest tumble in five years when he rose in the polls.

But his message - Peruvians first - is compelling to many in this country of 27 million.
(snip)

In an interview, Humala said he had distanced himself from his relatives. "They are free to express ideas, but I reject them," he said. "My family is the people. The Humalas come second."
(snip/...)

http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6443

[arcos]

4. I don't trust him...

He seems to be far too authoritarian for my taste. I don't see him as an Evo Morales, or an Hugo Chávez...

In the same article...

"Bayly said one reason he doubts Humala's sincerity is that the candidate allowed a brother, Antauro, to publish a newspaper for more than three years that carried his name, Ollanta, and preached violence against minorities, including gay people. "If he really repudiated those ideas, he should have demanded that his brother withdraw his name from the publication, but he didn't," Bayly said."

[bemildred]

2. LOL. There must be an election coming. nt

[arcos]

6. Of course...

Otherwise Ollanta Humala would be absolutely unknown, the media wouldn't care about Perú, and probably nothing about the country would be posted here (or any other American website).

[Peace Patriot]

3. That's the worst they can say about him--that is PARENTS are homophobic?

That would disqualify a lot of US here at DU from running for president (should we have such designs)!

If Peru TV works the way Venezuelan TV works, the oligarchs own it all, and are likely being relentless in their anti-Humala propaganda, as they were against Chavez.

Just like Faux News here, and Russ Limbaugh & cohorts (and the NYT, for that matter), they would stoop to any depths to prevent a true populist hero, representative of the vast poor of Peru, and an INDIGENOUS INDIAN, from getting elected president, and allying Peru with the profound leftist revolution that is sweeping Latin America--in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela, and soon to move north into Mexico (where the leftist mayor of Mexico City is ahead in the presidential polls).

In neighboring Bolivia, they just elected their first indigenous Indian as president, Evo Morales. Ten thousand Andes Indians came down out of the mountains to invest him in a special ceremony, prior to his formal inauguration. Hugo Chavez presented him with Simon Bolivar's sword (the revolutionary hero--freer of the slaves--whom Bolivia is named after).

Morales refuses to wear a suit. He is a peasant, former coca leaf grower. He helped throw Bechtel out of Bolivia, when Bechtel privatized the water and jacked up the price to the poor, even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater!

Very likely, the indigenous, the brown and the poor are not well-polled in Peru, prior to elections. If the OAS and other election monitoring groups are doing their work, and the election is transparent, I think that Humala will be elected, first round, no runoff. I don't know how well the elections are being monitored, but undoubtedly the leftist majority of Peru has learned a lot from the highly monitored elections in Venezuela and other countries, and is inspired by the leftist victories all over the continent.

-------------

"The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales

[arcos]

5. Humala is not a Chávez, nor an Evo...

He is more of a nationalist than a leftist. Sure, both Chávez and Evo have a nationalistic streak, but their ideology is more based on making justice to those who have been oppressed for decades and centuries by opening up democracy to everyone. Humala seems to be pretty authoritarian, and as I quoted the article in a previous message:

"Bayly said one reason he doubts Humala's sincerity is that the candidate allowed a brother, Antauro, to publish a newspaper for more than three years that carried his name, Ollanta, and preached violence against minorities, including gay people. "If he really repudiated those ideas, he should have demanded that his brother withdraw his name from the publication, but he didn't," Bayly said."


on edit: By the way, the biggest critic regarding the outrageous statements of Humala's family are NOT coming from right wing media, but from a Socialist Party candidate for Congress, Susel Paredes, who happens to be a lesbian.

[Flanker]

8. The Humala's are a complex family

So much so that the parents initially rejected Ollanta as not being enough etnocacerista, instead backing a brother for the presidential bid,the mother has also gone on record wishing to shoot homosexuals. Antauro (another brother) is indeed the most radical and dangerous of the bunch, but I have not seen anything different about Ollanta if you remove his family's history.

[Peace Patriot]

9. Yeah, but that quote of Evo Morales was regarding Humala's campaign:

"The time of the people has come."

[Judi Lynn]

7. Peru's Humala: “I belong with those downstairs”

Mercosur
Sunday, 02 April

Peru's Humala: “I belong with those downstairs”

With less than a week to the general election Peruvian ultra nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala who leads in the public opinion polls rejected being labelled “left wing” and said that if the press insists in “ideology” identification “I belong with those downstairs”.

“I don’t believe in the right wing/left wing confrontation. That ended when the two empires (US and USSR) confrontation was over. What we have now in the world are “globalizing” countries and “globalized” countries”, said Humala.

The former Army colonel insisted he represents the “fighting spirit” against neoliberalism which has also extended to other regions of Latinamerica.

“In some cases they call it left wing or socialism, in others indigenous. In Peru we call it nationalism”, underlined Humala.

“We’re looking for an alternative to the neo-liberal model. We want to belong to the Latinamerican family looking for changes”, he said adding that in the event of winning he would promote sub-continental integration without excluding countries that might have other “discrepant positions” (Chile).
(snip/...)

http://www.mercopress.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=7570