Indigenous Peruvians determine winner in presidential election

Characterizations of Peru’s newly elected president Pedro Castillo have swung from communist sympathizer, by the Guardian, to capitalist tool by the World Socialist Website. Castillo narrowly defeated right-wing opponent Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the now imprisoned ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori, in last month’s presidential election, amid charges of voter fraud by supporters of Fujimori. According to The World, “the US State Department and other international observers have said the election was clean.”

Over a quarter of Peru’s population identifies directly as Indigenous, although the level of Indigenous ancestry in the general population, including in Castillo, resonates in at least half the population, compared to the United States, where the Indigenous number less than five percent of the population. Overwhelming Indigenous support was the key factor in Castillo’s defeat of Fujimori.

Raised in poverty, Castillo has climbed to the top of the Peruvian political mountain, winning the support and trust of the country’s marginalized and downtrodden, but that has been in a turbulent political reality of one successive failed presidency after another, and according to the Guardian, Castillo’s Free Peru Party “has only 37 out of 130 seats in congress.” This speaks to continued division and instability as Castillo tries to form a new cabinet, and new policies, policies that his supporters claim will chart an independent and inclusive course benefiting all levels of Peruvian society.

In the past this has been seen as rhetoric advancing a nefarious Marxist agenda, and the wealth and privilege of the elite as evidence of a sound, capitalist, U.S. friendly economy. But across South America, Indigenous people are increasingly determining election outcomes and adding their voice and interests to policies and priorities. This is particularly evident in nearby Bolivia, where Evo Morales, an Amayra Indian, rose to the presidency of a country previously dominated by a conservative white minority. His successor and political ally, Luis Arce, plans to continue the socialist based agenda of Morales, despite hostility from the United States and other western democracies.

While Indigenous people continue to support socialist candidates, western democracies fear that Indigenous people are being hoodwinked into supporting Marxist agendas that will in the long run wreck the economy and plunge them into even deeper poverty and suffering. The actual nature of Castillo’s character, and the intent of the political agenda he will pursue, are lost in the distorted, polarized, partisan rhetoric from politicians and media advocating for the left and right. An additional factor is the interference of the U.S. and her allies, as well as that of emerging superpower China, which has now become Peru’s chief trading partner.

Every nation, regardless of its interests and agenda, fears that neighboring countries will suffer the current fate of Venezuela. It is alleged by the US State Department and United States allies, that policies set in motion two decades ago by former president Hugo Chavez,, and continued by current president Nicolas Maduro, have plunged the country into an economic crisis, that economists, according to the New York Times, consider worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.

While the suffering of the Venezuelan people cannot be disputed, what can be disputed is the actual cause. Propaganda arms of the US State Department, like ShareAmerica, and philosophical media allies like the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal, assert that the economic sanctions leveled by the US and her allies beginning in 2017 cannot be blamed, since the crisis predates the sanctions. However, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures, Alena Douhan, visited Venezuela in February 2021. In her subsequent report she stated that the economic sanctions against Peru by the US and her allies actually began in 2005, and intensified under President Obama in 2015, opening the door for a credible argument that the US and her allies did instigate the economic crisis in Venezuela. In her report Douhan reminded “all parties of their obligation under the UN Charter to observe principles and norms of international law [and] that humanitarian concerns shall always prevail over political ones.”

The Lima Group was formed in Peru in August 2017. Ostensibly, representatives of 12 countries met to work out a solution to the crisis in Venezuela. But their determinations all echoed the rhetoric of the US and her allies. The fear then became, what would newly elected President Pedro Castillo do about Peru’s hosting and support of the Lima Group? According to the Orinco Tribune: “The so-called Lima Group and its attempts to force regime change in Venezuela seems to have now come to an end with the arrival of Pedro Castillo to the presidency of Peru. Upon assuming office, Castillo’s new minister for foreign affairs, Héctor Béjar, has highlighted that Peru’s new foreign policy will be based on non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and particularly respect for Venezuelan sovereignty and rejection of the United States-imposed blockade.”
Castillo and Bolivian President Arce are now at the front of the opposition to US foreign policy in South America. Both leaders owe their success to the overwhelming support of the Indigenous populations in their respective countries. Just as Native Americans in the United States tend to vote blue, even though most of their reservations are deep in the heart of red states, the Natives in South America continue to support agendas of social justice and economic opportunity, despite many of their governments being directed by authoritarians and corrupt dictators, from both ends of the political spectrum.

Although the predictions have been dire in the US controlled western media, August has been relatively quiet on the news front for Peru. The only controversy being over pandemic vaccine from China. Castillo has had his inoculation. Peru is the number one hot spot for COVID death in the world. It is only a matter of time before the conservative controlled Peruvian congress retaliates for the Castillo Administration’s actions against the Lima Group. If Castillo topples, there could be backlash against the Indigenous electorate for supporting him. Turmoil will be the norm in Peru for the foreseeable future.

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

The post Indigenous Peruvians determine winner in presidential election first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source