Will Marxist Peruvian Presidential Winner Pedro Castillo Actually Prevail?

Until this a.m., I’d had my doubts, as Keiko Fujimori, daughter of corrupt jailed ex-President of Peru had been crying ‘voting fraud’ at the top of her neoliberal lungs. On Thurday, she’d called for the nullification of votes at 800 polling stations, claiming that in the south where the poorest people live, she’d received Zero votes.

The National Election Board had given her two weeks to make her case.

UPI had reported:
“Castillo ran on a socialist agenda emphasizing wealth distribution. Over the next five years, he has plans to nationalize industry in Peru, home to the world's 48th largest economy.

"No more poor people in a rich country," was a common campaign slogan for Castillo.

Peru is home to some of the world's most important mining operations pricing copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold. The nation also is also a prodigious exporter of fishing catches, textiles and agricultural products and textiles goods to China, Brazil and the United States. Peru is known for its illicit coca and cocaine exports.
Castillo plans to call for a constitutional assembly to focus on changes on economics including increasing taxes on businesses.”

This morning: ‘Socialist Castillo Close to Victory in Peru as Few Votes Remain to Be Counted’ by USNews, June 12, 2021

“Peruvian socialist candidate Pedro Castillo was close to being named the Andean country's next president as the vote count neared an end, making a last-minute flip by right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori increasingly unlikely.
Castillo, an elementary school teacher raised in an impoverished village, was leading the count by 51,000 votes on Saturday morning, when only around 62,000 votes remained to be counted.” [...]

“On Saturday, Peru's electoral jury tried to push back a deadline to allow Fujimori to submit requests to disqualify up to 200,000 votes cast in Peru's poorest regions, but said in the afternoon that it had backtracked that plan, paving the way for a Castillo victory. In the end, Fujimori has only been able to challenge some 38,000 votes.
"We call for the (electoral jury) to guarantee and support a clean and just electoral process," Castillo tweeted on Friday night. "The Peruvian people deserve it."

Is it time to: WOOOOOOT! yet?

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I am quite hopeful.

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14 users have voted.

NYCVG

wendy davis's picture

@NYCVG

but it's hard not believe that additional skull-duggery isn't afoot among the various compromised western-back groups that may end in disaster for castillo. allow a marxist-leninist to nationalize peru's vast resources?

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wendy davis's picture

@humphrey

left to count since the JNE reversed their decision, but how meaningful/probative is this?

Therefore, the JNE will analyze claims which had been submitted before the deadline expired on Wednesday.

is it accurate reporting? but yes, according to kawsachun news, anthony [Oh.Such.a.Diplomat] blinkn just laid a hella lot of new sanctions on nigaragua. he makes my skin crawl.

U.S. Coup Machine Unleashes New Sanctions on the Nicaraguan People
, June 10, 2021

zeese (RIP) and flowers went there several times as fair witness reporters over the past couple years.

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wendy davis's picture

@humphrey

recognized añez of the squinty eyes, but juan guaido, too.

the key word is Organization of American States, yanno? it's all ours to rule! the monroe doctrine says so!

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claiming that in the south where the poorest people live, she’d received Zero votes.

Like Trump getting zero votes in Chicago's Pilsen wards (Once eastly Germanic, now heavily Mexican, the rest black).

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

correct, even if your comparison was unknown to me.

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@wendy davis
The area is familiar in the Chicago area as it's often in the news, but West & east coasters and southerners probably wouldn't know Pilsen from Pilsener beer.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

appreciated the 411. ; )

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earthling1's picture

til the see eye a is dissolved.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

wendy davis's picture

@earthling1

said that both USAID and NED were cia cut-outs. OAS might qualify by now.

in the 'Stop the World, I Wanna Get Off' theme: imagine the world without the (failing, thus more loose cannon) 'American' Empire would look like.

good night; make community with all those you can. perhaps loving kindness will prevail.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJtq6OmD-_Y]

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@wendy davis It is a function of imperialism and a proxy of the US and its right wing politics.

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wendy davis's picture

al jazeera reported that no official results have been released, nor has ujimori conceded, which may be when 'the fat lady finally sings'.

the author also wrote:

With all of the 18.8 million votes cast in the June 6 presidential runoff now counted, Castillo has 50.15 percent support, giving him a razor-thin lead of just more than 50,000 votes against his hard-right opponent Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the jailed 1990s president Alberto Fujimori.

Peru’s National Electoral Tribunal (JNA, according to its Spanish acronym) ruled on Friday that most of her challenges had come after the legal deadline. There are now just less than 40,000 votes still in play, not enough to overturn the result.

Many commentators have noted how her legal team, made up largely of white lawyers, was effectively attempting to disenfranchise Indigenous and mixed race voters.

“It’s part of our political and legal culture, all this paperwork,” Arturo Maldonado, a political scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told Al Jazeera. “This is a candidate who has everything to lose and is using these tricks to win in the tribunal what she couldn’t do on the pitch.”

Fujimori’s refusal to concede has likely also increased the challenges Castillo, 51, a provincial schoolteacher and union leader, will face to establish his legitimacy in office.

Hope for ‘enlightenment’

Meanwhile, the mood has been tense in Peru as the country waits for the final result. The legal challenges are expected to run into next week, delaying the start of the transition as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the country.

Fujimori supporters were picketing the offices of the electoral agency, ONPE, and the homes of the head of the JNE and ONPE. Interim President Francisco Sagasti has called on both sides to avoid declaring victory before the official result is announced, prompting some lawmakers to even suggest censuring him for supposedly being biased against Fujimori.

this video was included:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JJd_f3HL7A]

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to say that I believe Castillo will take office. I suspect most of the Biden admin realize that if they start new wars, including another coup this year, they for sure loose congress next year. It looks to me like Powers is being sent out of the country away from where decisions are being made. She has an ego gratifying title and the cash to go along, but I don't get the impression she is being listened to very much. Please correct me if you know otherwise.

So, if I am right, Castillo will have two years to get enough support to fight off a coup attempt, like Maduro has done in Venezuela. That Venezuelan adventure made Trump look bad enough that Biden might nix any repeat during his term.

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Mary Bennett