SPOTLIGHT ON... PERU
After the second round of voting in Peru’s presidential election—in a country estimated to have the highest per capita coronavirus death rate in the world, at 160,000 in a population of 32m—there remains no official winner.
The polarised contest on 6th June was fought by two very different candidates. On the left was Pedro Castillo, a former teacher and union leader from Peru’s Andean region. On the right was Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the autocrat who ruled the country from 1990 to 2000 and is serving 25 years in prison for kidnap and murder. Animosity is never far away in Latin American politics—but this time it felt especially close, both because of Fujimori’s background and because Castillo, who is of indigenous origin, would be the first Peruvian president unconnected to the country’s elite.