This article was sent to Speak Out Socialists by a friend in Peru.
On Sunday, April 12, 27 million Peruvians were called to the polls for the first round of the presidential election, as well as to elect senators and members of Congress. The second round will take place on July 7, leaving plenty of time for every conceivable outcome. Among the 35 candidates, there was a bit of everything—from the comedian (Alvarez), who specializes in parodying political figures and found himself no less worthy than they are, to the drug lobby appearing under the banner of the coca leaf: everything except representatives of the working class. A law prohibits alcohol consumption during election week—a final insult to Peruvians, ensuring that sober people vote in favor of drunkards?
An election far removed from working people’s problems
Workers turned out in droves, not out of interest in an election that does nothing to change their daily struggles, but because those who abstain face a hefty fine. Riots broke out in poor neighborhoods where election materials didn’t arrive in time (or at all) to allow everyone to cast their vote. After hours of travel and waiting in line, impatient voters stormed the polling station doors. The body responsible for conducting the election eventually reassured everyone by announcing that there would be no penalties for non-voters. Phew, democracy is saved! The company responsible for transporting the materials—whose contract was secured by the far-right Aliaga, former mayor of Lima—may not have abandoned these polling stations by chance!
Polls indicate that a third of abstainers come from wealthy neighborhoods. Why would the millionaires of the San Isidore financial district leave their mansions to risk encountering Black or Indigenous people? They know that their power in Peru does not depend on election results. The conditions for extracting gold, copper, and lithium are guaranteed, not by the state but by gangster organizations that will find common ground with the government, whatever it may be.
And the winner is…
Electoral laws require that each vote count be conducted in the presence of a representative from every party fielding a candidate. This means that 35 people are supposed to oversee every vote count. It’s no wonder that, four hours after the polls closed, we still don’t know who the candidates for the second round will be. The rankings differed depending on which news channel one was watching at 6 p.m. It appears, however, that Keiko Fujimori—the daughter of the tyrant who had the bodies of thousands of Andean peasants, murdered by his henchmen in the 1990s, disposed of in crematoria—has secured her spot in the second round. She chose this election day to pay her respects at her father’s grave, giving the dozens of news channels she owns an excuse to shine the spotlight on her on a day when politics is not supposed to be discussed.
Will she win the second round of the elections? In any case, she will have the means to continue the parliamentary dictatorship that began in December 2022. Whether the republic is parliamentary or presidential, republican or liberal, the rich retain power as long as they remain the owners.
Louis Dracon
