The general elections in Peru, which were celebrated on April 10 and in which Keiko Fujimori from the Popular Force (Fuerza Popular) party won with more than 39 percent of the votes, are a good political lesson, not just because of the results, but also because of the Peruvian people’s development in relation to their history.
Alberto Fujimori was a very unique president in Peru, not just because contributed to his own military coup in 1992 and because he got rid of the emerging terrorist group called Shining Path by hugely violating human rights, but also because he attended to Peru’s abandoned history and the needs of the people.
However, absolute power absolutely falls. In this sense, with great popular acceptance and with enormous disdain for the laws he swore to defend, former President Fujimori left three things clear about himself.
The first was that he was a dictator. The second was that he didn’t respect the laws. And the third, which surely explains his daughter’s triumph, was that he was a ruler who was close to his people, even though he exterminated some of them and ended up in jail because of it.
But now, the results of the elections are not surprising because of who won, but because the extreme right-wing, represented by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and his Peruvians for a Change party, is going to face Peru’s pure left-wing, which represents the Broad Front (Frente Amplio) party candidate, Verónika Mendoza.
They are a Peruvian vision from a political phenomenon which has emerged from the Spanish Podemos party and from the young people in the U.S. who follow the democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. They are the anti-establishment voters that are already growing in various parts of the world.
Even though Keiko became president, this is only part of the story. Because Peru has decided to end the Fujimori story, something that should be a joke to the victims of his rule. And despite the fact that the former president is still behind the reigns, his daughter is now about to arrive at the Government Palace and carry out the Peruvians’ plans, including the dictator’s.
It is curious that the conditions have presented themselves for a second electoral turn against Fujimori. But if it is not capable of overthrowing the candidate, it will remain clear that the dissatisfaction of the pending issues cannot be capable of questioning the democratic system that currently is not valid or effective in solving society’s problems.
