elections

There is a certain uneasiness among the people in Peru right now; there is a tough decision to be made. The first round of elections for presidency has left the two people above in the running, Ollanta Humala y Keiko Fujimori. Maybe those names don't mean anything to you, but they both are very significant in Peru. Each have an interesting history behind them....and not a good one, to say the least. It always seems that the Peruvians are left to choose, "the worse of two evils". A statement I've heard coming from Peruvian mouths more than once. It's sad it comes to this every 4 years, they people are left to choose either a left-wing, communist ex-military who has led violent manifestations or a person who seems to know nothing about government at all, but whose fame comes from her ex-president father who stole millions from the country, killed thousands and is currently in prison serving a life-sentence for those killings, the only plan of government that she has presented that makes any sense at all does not include the fact that the only reason she wants to become president is to get her father out of prison.

I think Keiko would make for a terrible president, but I'm sure Humala would be worse - mostly because he would probably make it difficult or impossible for Chileans (like Ricky and my children) to get residency or continue living comfortably in Peru. We shall see... and although we don't know what will happen, it sure is an interesting race with lots of drama! We'll keep you posted. The second and final round of elections will be on June 5th.