Peru

LIMA – In Bolivia, with the election as president of a representative from the excluded Indian majority, Evo Morales, it is clear that belatedly the Indian community has expressed its deepest longings, albeit by voting for a leader who if he walks like he talks will destroy any hope they may have for escaping the worst poverty in Latin America. In Peru, whose election is only a few weeks away, the Indian question, although not as polarised as in neighboring Bolivia, threatens to undo the good economic work done by president Alberto Fujimori (who had to flee to Japan in 2000 after scandal felled him) and the present president, Alejandro Toledo. Even though Toledo is an Indian, and even though he has been able to maintain GDP growth rates at a healthy 5% a year, he is probably the least popular president in Latin America. In this polarised situation there...

MADRID- Two elections will shortly take place in Latin America that could, it is being said, make a trend or break a trend. This, of course, depends on what you think the trend is. If you believe that the trend is towards a firming of democracy then a truly open contest in the election scheduled in Mexico for July 2nd, which would be an historic first, together with the defeat of the autocratic quasi democrat, Alberto Fujimori, in Peru on May 28th would confirm your opinion. But if you believe that the trend has been on the ebb for some time with the attempted coups in Bolivia and Paraguay and the rise of elected autocrats in Venezuela and Peru, then a re-elected Fujimori and the victory of the governing party in Mexico will confirm your pessimistic leanings. The truth perhaps is somewhere in between. The post-Caudillo democratic movement, which started life...