A fast-moving left-wing activist in Peru who promises to take over foreign mines and the daughter of a former authoritarian president will face each other in a presidential election that gives voters two completely different ideological options in a country that suffers goes under political unrest and the pandemic.
The election pits Pedro Castillo, a 51-year-old former teacher who says he would nationalize mining projects and dismantle a business-friendly economic model, against Keiko Fujimori, whose father rules Peru with an iron fist.
Mr Castillo, who leads a Marxist-inspired party glorifying Fidel Castro to take office, is fighting a business class that thrived when Peru’s trade – friendly economy flourished over the past two decades. Among the major investors here are subsidiaries of Anglo American PLC, Newmont Mining Corp. of Denver and Aluminum Corporation of China.
“We are often told that only political scientists, constitutionalists, erudite politicians, those with a high degree can govern a country,” Castillo recently told supporters. “They had enough time.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he said he saw this election as a “competition between the rich and the poor … I see a struggle between the boss and the laborer, the master and the slave.”