Indigenous leader Pizango launches candidacy for Peru president

[Judi Lynn]

November 18, 2010 17:22
Indigenous leader Pizango launches candidacy for Peru president

Today the indigenous leader Alberto Pizango announced his bid for Peru’s presidential elections, held April of next year.

Pizango, who previously headed Aidesep, a political coalition of groups in Peru’s Amazon Rainforest, said he will promote a multiethnic, decentralized state that defends the natural environment from “Western ambition.”

Although his candidacy is a longshot, it is speculated that Pizango’s bid may draw votes away from the nationalist leader Ollanta Humala, who lost the 2006 presidential in a close run-off to Alan García. Polls now place Humala fourth for the 2011 election.

Pizango was accused by Peru’s government for inciting the violent clash between indigenous groups and police in June, 2009 in Bagua. The incident, known in Peru as “el baguazo,” left 33 people dead. Soon after, Pizango was granted political asylum in Nicaragua when Peru’s government charged him with sedition, kidnapping and inciting rebellion. He returned in May of this year and was promptly arrested in Lima, but has since been released, although his case is still being processed.

http://www.livinginperu.com/news-13571-2011-elections-indigenous-leader-pizango-launches-candidacy-peru-president

[bemildred]

1. This ought to be interesting.

Mr Pizango seems to have courage and conviction.

[Judi Lynn]

2. He certainly does, doesn't he? He knows how lethal Alan Garcia really is,

and he just keeps on ticking!

Good luck to him. It's a very dangerous path he has chosen.

[Peace Patriot]

3. So Humala has risen into fourth place. I believe he was 5th or 6th in the prior poll

that was posted here. That's interesting. That's how he almost won against Garcia before, coming from way behind.

I have several questions which maybe someone could answer?

Isn't a Humala-Pizango coalition likely--with, say, Pizango endorsing Humala, if Humala keeps rising in the polls (or vice versa)? Is there any political, personal, historical, tribal reason that this wouldn't likely happen? In the Garcia vs Humala election, the Indigenous strongly supported Humala. Has there been a rift? Is Pizango simply wanting to stress certain things--say, a more Evo Morales-like, decentralized government, or the environment--in the political dialogue? Is his a serious run? Will he stay in, if it's hurting the left, and helping the right, to have two leftist candidates in the first round?

And, what is this business of calling Humala a "nationalist"? What does that mean in Peru? And is it accurate?

Here, of course, we must always be on the alert for the lies, mischaracterizations, bias, propaganda, etc., of the corpo-fascist press, when it reports on the left in Latin America. But I don't know anything about this news source--"Living in Peru"--or about the press in general in Peru. A quick look at "Living in Peru"'s web site--typical corpo news treatment--for instance, they seem to think U.S. Ag dumping "high quality" foods on Peru is a good thing. Would "nationalist," to them, mean that Humala is against U.S. Ag imports and for small peasant farmers and local food sovereignty?

"Nationalist" has rightwing connotations to me, but I know that Humala is certainly not a rightwinger. So what does it mean? Anti-U.S. "free trade for the rich"? Or anti-U.S. military boots in Peru?

In that sense, Rafael Correa is a "nationalist." He kicked the U.S. military out of Ecuador, and said that he would allow a U.S. military base in Ecuador when the U.S. allows an Ecuadoran military base in Miami! And Evo Morales is a "nationalist." He kicked the DEA out of Bolivia. And Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, and Chavez. But none of these leaders are isolationists. All are into Latin American economic/political integration and multilateral trade. Does "nationalist" mean anti-U.S. bullying and exploitation?

But why would they single out Humala as a "nationalist," when Pizango has very similar policies, including "defending the natural environment against 'Western ambition'"?

"Nationalist" could also mean "all for Peru and nobody else." But neither does that fit Humala, at all. He is likely very pro-economic integration, within Latin America, and among Global South countries, just like the other leftist leaders of the region.

Is it a pejorative term? (Corpos and new rich urban elite dissing leftists?) Is it in any way related to his military service?