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Peru’s socialist presidential hopeful Veronika Mendoza didn’t make it to the second round after skyrocketing in the polls, but her Broad Front coalition is optimistic that this election is only the beginning of a larger process of resisting neoliberalism and building left alternatives in Peru and Latin America.
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Mendoza’s Broad Front, a leftist coalition formed in 2013, came in third in Peru’s April 10 election behind conservative front-runner Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, and Wall Street economist Pablo Pedro Kuczynski, also known as PPK, who will now face off in a presidential runoff on June 5.
“Whether Fujimori wins or PPK wins, there will be five more years of neoliberalism,” Juan Diego Motta, a congressional candidate with the Broad Front, told teleSUR. “So we are preparing ourselves for resistance, but in new conditions.”
Motta explained that the shifting conditions include a solid base of support from some 20 percent of the electorate and representation in Congress.
Even though it was a letdown for the left to see Mendoza eliminated in the first round after a tense exit poll showed her in a dead heat for second place with PPK, the election was in many ways a victory for the Broad Front. It has marked the first time in decades that a socialist force made a strong showing, despite widespread cries of electoral fraud and other irregularities, including vote buying and questionable application of election laws, that systematically favored right-wing candidates.
“We have the conditions to build a true, strong left force here in Peru,” said Motta. “Maybe what happened 15 years ago in Venezuela, then Ecuador, Bolivia, is beginning here now.”
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Motta explained that the Broad Front has built its foundations through developing networks with grassroots campesino, labor, and student movements that share an interest in challenging the neoliberal economic model and structural racism represented in the coalition’s socialist alternatives.
“There is an opportunity to stop the regression in Latin America brought by the right wing, by conservative setbacks, and I think that the Broad Front has the possibility of doing it,” added Motta.
The surge of the Broad Front in Peru comes as Latin America’s socialist Pink Tide has suffered significant defeats elsewhere in the region, including the election of conservative President Mauricio Macri in Argentina, the opposition takeover of the National Assembly in Venezuela, and right-wing maneuvers to manipulate a crisis and push President Dilma Rousseff from power in Brazil.
“It’s no coincidence that the Peruvian right is among the staunchest in the continent,” said Motta, adding that the country was home to both historical battles against the Spanish Empire that were key in Latin America’s independence and a brutal internal conflict in the 1980’s and 1990’s that claimed at least 70,000 lives. “It’s been here in Peru that the right has practiced … and we are going to give new breath to the electoral left.”
The New Dirty War Against the Left
Throughout the campaign, Veronika Mendoza and other Broad Front candidates were targets of fierce attacks for their challenge to the status quo. Both Mendoza and Motta, along with other candidates, were accused of being “terrorists” and smeared pejoratively as “Chavistas” for the coalition’s support of Venezuela’s socialist Bolivarian Revolution.
Motta argued that there has been “very strong dirty war” against the Broad Front, including “incessant campaigns” to link the candidates to terrorist activity, aided by the highly-concentrated and elite-owned media that have latched onto right-wing narratives that can often confuse the population.
“Here in Peru we practically live a dictatorship of media outlets,” Motta argued, adding that alternative media including local radio and social network has formed the foundation of the campaign.
Held Hostage by a Policy of Fear
While anti-Fujimori sentiment has been on display in thousands-strong marches in the lead-up to the election, the brutal legacy of the authoritarian regime isn’t enough to stamp out ongoing support for the Fujimori and pave the way for Keiko’s possible rise to power in the country’s top office.
In the 1990’s, Alberto Fujimori’s presidency morphed into a dictatorship when the military helped him carry out a self-coup to perpetuate his rule. The decade was marked by forced disappearances, grave human rights violations, and a deadly crackdown on political opponents that aimed to wipe out left-wing forces in the country in the name of counterterrorism.
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Fujimori’s rule also aggressively unrolled neoliberalism and a cultural policy of assimilation that together submitted Peruvians to “unbelievable poverty,” which Motta argued has also paved the way for a widespread practice of vote buying, including with the spoils of cocaine production.
But the anti-terrorism narrative is still powerful and figures into a policy of fear promoted by the right wing.
“The internal conflict was very hard,” Motta said. “Every time we put forward a leftist proposal, every time we begin to grow, they try to mobilize the lowest sectors with the issue of the internal conflict and terrorism and maintain ignorance by selling realities that are not true.”
“Many people are held hostage by fear,” he added.
Fighting for Peru’s Second Independence
Despite the challenges, including structural problems that have stacked the deck against the left in Peru, the Broad Front has made major gains.
But while the coalition continues to define and develop itself internally, challenging Peru’s neoliberal doctrine will undoubtedly be an uphill battle. While the fight against terrorism remains a cornerstone of conservative politics in the country, which has moved past the days of bloody internal conflict, Motta argues that the true targets of right-wing “counterterrorism” are leftist activists and socialist politicians.
Nevertheless, Mendoza’s party is committed to building the movement in the long term.
“The Broad Front does not end here with the elections, we are going to continue to be mobilized in the streets,” said Motta. “There is going to be an opportunity for the future of the country so that in 2021, which are the next elections and is also the 200th anniversary of independence of the country, we will see a second a true independence for Peru and for all of Latin America.”
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