# Tell me about Ollanta Humala (Peru's likely next president) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 12, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454 "2006-04-12T23:53:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/1 "2006-04-12T23:53:47Z")
The top finisher in this week’s presidential election in Peru is Ollanta Humala, a former Army officer. He got less than 50% so he’s have to go through a runoff election – whether against former president Alan Garcia or pro-business congresswoman Lourdes Flores remains to be seen; they’re still fighting it out for second place. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1751565,00.html](http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1751565,00.html) What kind of politician is Humala? Some news reports describe him as a “leftist” who identifies with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, but more often he is called an “ultranationalist.” I’m not clear on whether that means he’s hostile to the IMF, FTAA and economic globalization, or whether he’s hostile to cooperation with other Latin American countries. Would he be for or against the full EU-style integration of the new South American Community of Nations? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South\_American\_Community](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American_Community) ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/2 "2006-04-13T02:06:24Z")
The important thing to understand about Humala is that he’s indigenous. White Latin Americans will give you a funny look, and if you press the issue, will start to get indignant if you point out that the area is a racist stew. But it is. In the Caribbean, it’s kind of soft, but it hits you when you realize that everywhere you go, the lightest skinned people have the most wealth and power. On the mainland, from Mexico on south, it’s harder, especially if you’re Indian. North Americans don’t realize this, but Mexico is majority indigenous or mixed. Peru as well. Bolivia, likewise. They are despised by the whites, looked down upon in a merciless way that’s really hard to describe. Humala is their man, best as I can tell from all the way up here. The only surprising thing about him is that it took this long for an indigenous nationalist to win an election. As to what kind of leader he will be, I have no idea. But I distrust military men to be anything other than dictators. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, the difference between Chavez in Venezuela and Lula in Brazil is that Chavez is military, and therefore reflexively dictatorial, whereas Lula is a trade unionist, and therefore reflexively democratic and open to negotiation, even when he’s being confrontational. I prefer a Lula to a Chavez. On the surface, Humala appears to be a Chavez. We shall see. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/3 "2006-04-13T12:43:13Z")
Update: Lourdes Flores finished third, so Humala will be facing Garcia in the runoff. [http://euronews.net/create\_html.php?page=detail\_info&article=353728&lng=1](http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=353728&lng=1) ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/4 "2006-04-15T17:48:16Z")
Your link doesn’t work anymore, but here’s [a good blog post](http://bonoboathome.blogspot.com/2006/04/peru-elections.html) on the results from a blog called _Bonobo Land_, maintained by Edward Hugh, a frequent contributor to _A Fistful of Euros_. It nicely backs up my supposition on the man’s popularity: > [@](#): > > Among the mostly Quechua-speaking inhabitants of Ayacucho and surrounding state, Humala’s support neared 60 percent, with more than 70 percent of the region’s votes counted… > Humala’s father, Isaac, is a retired Marxist lawyer who was born in the Ayacucho region and graced his son with a Quechua name that means “warrior who sees all.” > Isaac Humala is the founder of ethnocacerism, a racist movement named after a 19th-century president, Andres Avelino Caceres. It is rooted in a concept of ethnic vindication for Peru’s indigenous descendants of the Inca Empire against their lighter-skinned oppressors. > Ollanta Humala insists he does not share his father’s racist ideology, but there’s little question he has benefited from it. > “He has not needed to champion the racist preaching of his father and his brothers because people see him anyway as someone who is going to put the whites in their place,” said Jorge Bruce, a psychoanalyst and respected social commentator in Lima, where nearly one in three of Peru’s 27 million people live and where Flores dominated Sunday’s vote. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/5 "2006-04-16T23:06:19Z")
Hmmm . . . As the counting continues, Flores is now closing in on Garcia. [http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/04/16/peru.election.ap/](http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/04/16/peru.election.ap/) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/6 "2006-04-17T21:36:25Z")
Now they say it may take weeks to call it between Garcia and Flores: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041601141.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041601141.html) ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-ollanta-humala-perus-likely-next-president/352454/7 "2006-04-17T21:38:11Z")
I’ve heard he speaks excellent Spanish.