PERU: Humala Declares Victory; Market Resumes Roller Coaster Performance...Down 12%...Before Trading Halted; Econ. Team Examined.

LATIMES/ T. Wilkinson / good quotes

   With a result that's already shaken Peru's market, ex-military colonel leftist Ollanta Humala claimed victory over conservative Keiko Fujimori.
   With 98% of the vote counted, Humala (above) told a Lima crowd: "We've won the election.We will form a democratic government open to civil society."
    Humala garnered about 51.4% of the vote...while Fujimori had 48.6%.
    Many apparently believed Fujimori was just a proxy for her father, currently serving 25-years for corruption and human rights abuses during his 1990s authoritarian regime.
   "It is a question of dignity," said a retired bank employee who supported Humala."We cannot permit the child of a murderer and thief, who is serving time in jail, to become president."
    But a Keiko supporter said of Humala: "I don't believe in such sudden change. His 40 years of formation tells us he is not a democrat."

AND:  By mid-day, stockholders had sold off shares on Lima's exchange...down 12%...declining the most
in recorded history...before trading was halted.
   The Sol sank 0.8 percent to 2.7860 per usd.
   Foreign investors had announced plans to spend more than $40 bn usd in the next decade to extract gold, silver and copper from Peru.
   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/peru-s-dollar-bonds-sink-as-humala-election-lead-spurs-concern-on-economy.html 

REUTERS :  On some of Humala's key advisers: eg, Felix Jimenez, Oscar Dancourt, Kurt Burneo, et al.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/06/us-peru-elections-whoswho-idUSTRE7554VQ20110606

 TO SEE: EURONEWS 1:23 ENGLISH report...on election:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdvvEPCYmUY&feature=feedu

PERU: Voters Feel Like They Must Choose Between...Hitler And Darth Vader; Smears Increase Before Vote.

EL CHIGUIRE BIPOLAR/ En ESP

   A commentary on Sunday's presidential election...the choice between conservative Keiko Fujimori...and leftist Ollanta Humala...by the Caracas-based humor website.

 AND:  Smears, insults and dirty tricks have increased before Sunday's presidential election between the two populists...at opposite ends of the political spectrum...with recent polls showing Keiko Fujimori barely ahead.
    "I'm voting 'neither' because whichever becomes president needs to know there is a part of Peru that doesn't support them," said a Lima real estate agent.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/03/v-fullstory/2249582/mudslinging-dismay-mark-peru-presidential.html

PERU: Profiled: Keiko Fujimori's USA-Born Husband.

TIME

    Little known fact...Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori's husband Mark Villanella, 35, (above) was born in New Jersey and can't run for President in Peru.
    But he may become Peru's "first spouse."
   Conservative Fujimori leads in presidential polls...two weeks before the 5 June election...by a slim 3 to 5 points over leftist nationalist Ollanta Humala.

PERU: Keiko Fujimori Profile: Father's Disgrace Follows Her; Rudolph Guiliani Hired As Advisor.

AP/ Long Profile

 AP:   Keiko Fujimori's "...chances in the 5 June runoff may depend on which alternative Peruvians fear more: the daughter of a man serving a 25-year sentence for authorizing death squad killings and looting the treasury, or leftist military man Ollanta Humala, whom critics liken to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
       Polls show voters almost evenly spit, though several surveys have put Fujimori slightly ahead.
       Her biggest challenge has been trying to cope with the shadow of her father's legacy."

 AND :  "Experts believe no other Peruvian government has looted the nation's treasury on the scale of Alberto Fujimori's."
     Some estimate members of the Alberto Fujimori administration stole...$600 mn usd. Others say it was billions.

  ALSO:   Fujimori has hired former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani as an adviser.
      Observers speculate that she wants to bolster her law-and-order image...without using her father's reputation of wielding an iron fist.
 http://www.livinginperu.com/news/14956

PERU: FM Benavides Wants To Shield $30 Bn Pension Fund...From Leftist Front-runner Humala.

BLOOMBERG/ J. Quigley

   Finance Minister Ismael Benavides announced that he will seek new laws to prevent presidential front-runner Ollanta Humala (pictured) from tapping $30 billion in private pension funds should he win the June election.
   The leftist nationalist Humala won the April first-round vote.
   In 3 recent polls, with 41% support Humala leads Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori's 37%.
    However, a newly released Ipsos poll shows the two virtually tied...with 39% for Humala and 38 % supporting Fujimori.
   Humala's continuing lead in the polls has caused the biggest slump in stocks there since October 2008...also sending government bond yields to a two-year high.
    But the market rallied on the Ipsos results Wednesday.
    Nevertheless... “You’ve seen what happened in Argentina, and we want to avoid that,” said Benavides. “It’s a trend, in certain countries that are making a mess of what they are doing.”

PERU: New Statistical Tie In Presidential Race As Keiko Catches Up; Market Soars.

REUTERS / P. Velez and M. Aquino

    New polls reveal that right-winger Keiko Fujimori has caught-up with former front-runner...left-winger Ollanta Humala...in the 5 June presidential contest.
   The results sent the stock market there soaring.
   Investors seeing that Fujimori could win helped pushed the stock index 3.4% higher for the second straight day...after weeks of heavy selling...and 22% decline that wiped out about $18 billion.

PERU: 12 April UPDATE: Humala Runs Away In First Round; Will Face Keiko In June.

    LINK CHANGE/ M.PRESS/

   Retired Colonel and nationalist Ollanta Humala (pictured above), 48, won the first round of the presidential election with 31.3% of the vote...and will face legislator Keiko Fujimori, daughter of disgraced and jailed ex- President Alberto Fujimori...on 5 June. Fujimori garnered 23.22%
    Former president Toledo badly trailed three other candidates.
    Is history prelude to the future?
    In 2006, Humala also won the first round of a presidential election...but lost the runoff to current President Alan Garcia...because many voters feared Humala would would change Peru into a mirror of Hugo Chavez's socialismo.
     The markets...were nervous. Stocks there fell...3%.
     Peru has put up 12 consecutive strong years of growth.
     Many wonder if Humala has really changed...or is just mouthing platitudes...to appease investors and voters.

PERU: Keiko Fujimori...Profiled; Debt Swaps Soar As Leftist Humala Lead Grows.

AP/ M.HERALD / F. BRICENO and F. BAJAK
2 Screen Read...Combined

    Keiko Fujimori is within reach of becoming Peru's first female president.
   Various polls have her around second place in Sunday's election...enough to qualify for a June runoff...if no candidate gets a simple majority.
   Keiko, 35, still carries the baggage of her father Alberto, Peru's president in the 1990's.
  Fujimori is a man both admired and hated, who fled to Japan after a corruption scandal.
   Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa raised the election's level of antipathy...when he compared a runoff choice between leftist/nationalist Ollanta Humala or Keiko Fujimori...to choosing...cancer or AIDS.

AND:    Peru's debt default swaps have soared to a 5-yr highs...with Ollanta Humala's (pictured below) 26% lead in Sunday's presidential election. Humala was in fourth place in polls a month ago.
 “While everyone had expected this to be a non-event election, we were proven wrong,” said HSBC strategist Marjorie Hernandez. “The market was not positioned that way. Everyone was long Peru everything.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-06/ex-rebel-humala-sparks-increase-in-default-swaps-before-election.html

PERU: Polls Show Humala The Clear Frontrunner As Surge Continues; C.Bank Raises Bank Reserves For 3rd Month To Fight Inflation.

REUTERS/

   New polling shows leftist nationalist Ollanta Humala leading the 10 April presidential race...with former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski close to second place in one poll.
   Humala recently gained nearly 10 points in polls...to 24.3%...and is now MORE than 5 points ahead of his nearest rivals...former president Alejandro Toledo with 18.8%...and lawmaker Keiko Fujimori with 18.4%.

AND:  The central bank has raised banks' reserve requirements...for a third straight month...after food prices set a 33-month high in March. 
 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/peru-boosts-reserve-requirements-for-third-month-to-cool-surging-inflation.html

PERU: 25 Mar UPDATE: Toledo's Popularity In Free Fall; Fujimori In Virtual 1st Place Tie; Investors Dump Bonds Over Humala Mining Renegotiation Threats; Humala Profiled.

M.PRESS

   Just two weeks before the election, ex-president Alejandro Toledo and Keiko Fujimori (pictured)
 the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, are virtually tied with 20.5% and 20% in recent polls.
    Toledo's lead has melted away,losing 7.9 percentage points in the last three weeks.
    Pollster Manuel Saavedra believes the volatility is because the electorate is fed up with the aggressive, abusive campaigns that target private lives.
“Three week ago Toledo had a comfortable lead over his closest runner up but since he was the favourite all fire concentrated on his private life with the most unbelievable claims”, said Saavedra.

 AND: UPDATE:
   Peru's bonds are being dumped after surging leftist Humala said he would renegotiate energy and mining contracts with foreign companies if he wins next month’s vote. “We must recover sovereignty over Peru’s natural resources because the multinationals now own our gas and prefer to sell it abroad,” he told BLOOMBERG. “There must be a mining windfall tax as the current model isn’t sustainable.”
    Humala lost the 2006 runoff to current President Garcia by 5 percentage points. In 2000, he seized Southern Copper’s Toquepala mine to protest the corruption of President Fujimori, who later fled into exile.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-25/chavez-ally-humala-says-will-seek-to-renegotiate-peruvian-energy-contracts.html

ALSO: HUMALA profiled.
REUTERS claims that Humala, 48, is trying to transform his image from radical...to trustworthy family man.
"The problem (before) with Humala was that he had terrible advisors. Now you can see that it's a smart campaign," said an observer.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/25/us-peru-election-humala-idUSTRE72O4HI20110325

PERU: Humala Gaining Traction As Run-off Battle Heats-up.

REUTERS / P.VELEZ

   Leftist Ollanta Humala recently gained about 5 points in polling to 15% and is rapidly closing in on two candidates for the runoff spot in the 10 April presidential sweepstakes.
    Legislator Keiko Fujimori and former Lima Mayor Luis Castaneda are virtually tied for second.
    It means that any of three candidates could be pitted against front-runner Alejandro Toledo... in a 5 June runoff election. Toledo leads all others by at least 7 percentage points.

ALSO: 4:16 AUDIO ONLY Report: Reliable Colombia watcher JOHN OTIS explores Keiko Fujimori's campaign in Peru's upcoming contest.
http://www.theworld.org/2011/03/keiko-fujimori-peru/

PERU: 11 Arrested In Gold Miners Strike; Former Prez.Toledo Leads In Polls With World Banker "El Gringo" Kuczynski In 5th; Giant Rock Strands 150 Tourists Outside Machu Picchu; Garcia First To Cut Ties With Gadhafi.

REUTERS/ Caroline Stauffer/

    Former World Bank economist and presidential hopeful Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 72, aka "El Gringo", (pictured) is in fifth place for the April 10 election. He was the finance minister and prime minister under former President Alejandro Toledo, who is also running and has a comfortable lead of 36.5 percent. Keiko Fujimori is second with 20.7 percent.
    Kuczynski is attempting to gain some traction by running an unorthodox campaign that includes playing Andean tunes on his flute and touring with a popular motivational speaker.

ALSO: 11 arrests were made on the first day of the strike of some 1,500 miners.
       Their indefinite strike is protesting the military operation destruction of illegal dredgers in the region.

AND: At least 150 tourists were stranded in Ollantaytambo by a large rock blocking the train tracks leading to Machu Picchu.

 AND: Peru was the first nation to suspend suspended diplomatic relations with Libya over the use of force against civilians there. It also wants the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, to prevent the use of fighter jets against the civilian population by the Libyan government.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12548239


ALSO:    The campaign of Keiko Fujimori is under a cloud after it was revealed that she had received $10,000 usd from an alleged narco businessman. She was recently booed and insulted at a campaign meeting. They shouted: “Murderer!” “Get out of here!” and  “you educated yourself with our money!

PERU: Toledo's Lead Grows Ahead Of April Election.

M.PRESS/

     Former President Alejandro Toledo's lead grew again for the 10 April presidential election, with Keiko Fujimori trailing and Toledo perhaps locking-up a run-off birth.
    Toledo garnered 30% support, up three points from last month.
   Support for congress-woman Keiko, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, was stagnant at 20%.

PERU: Former Prez.Toledo Narrowly Leading Polls With 27%.

LIVING IN PERU/

   Latest polls in the race for president show Alejandro Toledo leading with 27 percent support, trailed by Luis Castañeda with 22 percent followed by Keiko Fujimori with 20 percent.
   Toledo was president between 2001 and 2006. He is a Stanford-trained economist but while his presidency produced strong economic growth it did not help the many poor indigena people.

PERU: Ex-Prez Toledo Announces For Another Presidential Run.

LIVING IN PERU/
   Alejandro Toledo, 64, Peru's president from 2001 to 2005, has announced another run for the office via Twitter.
    He faces a crowded field including Luis Castaneda, Lima's mayor ; Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced and imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori; leftist former candidate Ollanta Humala; and, recently announced Mercedes Aráoz, the ex-finance minister in the García administration.
    Toledo's government was troubled by scandal and corruption as well as his initial refusal to acknowledge the existence of his daughter Zaraí.

PERU: Pol Predicts Nation Won't Veer Left In 2011.

REUTERS/    Possible presidential candidate, conservative lawmaker Keiko Fujimori, believes voters will "choose the responsible option" in 2011 and not choose a leftist.
Fujimori, 34, may face fellow conservative Lima Mayor Luis Castaneda. They are nearly tied in opinion polls. Fujimori blames pro-investment President Alan Garcia for neglecting violence from controversial oil and mining projects in the Amazon and small Andean towns. Her father, former President Alberto Fujimori, was convicted last year for his role in ordering a death squad to attack insurgents.