Democracy under attack by Trumpism in Peru
Trumpism is not dead. A new political philosophy comprising a combination of white supremacy, voter suppression, market fundamentalism, and authoritarianism is influencing the June 6, 2021 presidential election in Peru, South America.
All the votes have been counted and national and international election observers have confirmed that the election was fair, but right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of jailed former dictator Alberto Fujimori, is staging a coup to prevent her rival, the son of illiterate peasants Pedro Castillo to become president. Her cries of fraud, without any evidence, have shaken the class system and a fragile democracy.
Pedro Castillo won the election with a small margin of 44,000 votes with the support of the rural poor who are 54% of the population, including the 19% who live in absolute poverty (that is, they live on less than $1.00 per day). He has promised to apply the country’s resources to reduce the high poverty rate (VisionLaunchMedia- 3 Peru’s Tragic Poverty Rate Statistics and Facts by Crystal Lombardo, August 24).
By contrast, Fujimori’s campaign was essentially a fight against communism that won over many middle-class voters and has the backing of the entire Lima establishment, business leaders and the mainstream media, as well as the middle class. .
In a society where there are great social, racial and regional inequalities, Castillo is an outsider whose popularity is seen as a threat by privileged Peruvians. Fujimori advocates continuing the same failed market-driven policies that got Peru to where he is today.
Fujimori’s strategy is clearly similar to Trump’s. Spread disinformation, delegitimize elections and create an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
First of all, you smear your opponent by calling him a communist. So if you lose, you yell and accuse your opponent of stealing the election from you.
Inspired by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the US election, Fujimori has promised his supporters that the election “will be reversed”.
An illustration of the uneven playing field is that, even before the elections, he hired the best legal minds to file more than a thousand petitions in court to annul 400,000 votes, almost all from the Andean regions that overwhelmingly supported Castillo.
In mid-June, more than sixty ex-military officers published a letter calling for a coup against Castillo, and there have been racial memes on social media among the white middle class that Andeans are too ignorant to vote and call for a return to power. alleged forced government of Alberto Fujimori. sterilizations against indigenous women.
Fujimori has a vested interest in the election outcome because she faces 35 years in prison for bribery and corruption and, as president, would be free to drop the charges and pardon her jailed father.
The injustice of the electoral system is illustrated by the fact that, although the election took place more than three weeks ago, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) has not certified the result.
Peru is yet another example where democracy is threatened.
In the process of development, democracy was supposed to replace feudalism in Europe, the one-party state in Africa, and military rule in Latin America. But increasingly liberal democracies around the world are seeing the rise of authoritarian populists like Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines), Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel), Narenda Modi (India) and now Keiko Fujimori, who are looking themselves as the equivalent and allies of Donald Trump.
The people voted for them. It is shocking that almost 50% of voters in Peru chose to hand over the country’s presidency to someone with such questionable character as Keiko Fujimori. If she had won, it would have been like handing over the keys to the chicken coop to the fox.
The coup also has geopolitical implications with the alleged involvement of the US as some of Fujimori’s team have ties to the CIA.
No matter how perfect the theory of a political system is, it is only as good as people observe its principles. When democracy fails it leads to political instability and even violence.
There is a persistent ideology in the world that covers social emotions, style of government, political movement, and a set of mechanisms for acquiring and maintaining power associated with Donald Trump.
On January 6, the Trump mob stormed the Capitol in Washington DC, the very heart of America’s democracy, and it took the intervention of the military to save, not one side or the other, but the system itself. and democracy prevailed.
In Peru it remains to be seen whether the people will be able to save their democracy or will have to live the unpleasant alternative of a bloody revolution.