“You are the head of a criminal network,” said Pedro …

From Lima

A week before the presidential elections, during which the continuity or change of the neoliberal economic model, prevailing for three decades in country, leftist professor and trade unionist Pedro Castillo has a minimal, two-point advantage over right-wing Keiko Fujimori, according to two polls published this Sunday. In this context of great uncertainty about what could happen next Sunday, the candidates met face to face in a debate that raised high expectations and which analysts say could be decisive for one or the other to join. in this final section the votes you need. to gain the upper hand and win the presidency. At one point, Castillo called Keiko a “head of a criminal organization”, referring to the legal proceedings against her for money laundering, criminal organization and obstruction of justice.

Speaking in a slow, calm and serene tone, Castillo opened the debate by presenting himself as a farm worker of humble origins and highlighting his work as a teacher in an Andean school. “I come with my hands clean,” he said in his first speech. It was the first precise shot. His rival, prosecuted for corruption and who among his close collaborators includes officials from his father’s corrupt dictatorship, cannot say the same.

Keiko was more aggressive. Right from the start. It started with a stone in hand, literally. He lifted a stone, which he said was thrown at his entourage during the hostile reception he received on his arrival in the city of Arequipa, where the debate took place, and accused his rival , without any proof, of having favored this violence. He repeated the speech of trying to discredit the leftist candidate, saying he had promoted the class struggle because of his questioning of the inequalities that mark the country.

They started by discussing health and the pandemic. Both have promised to vaccinate the whole country by the end of the year. “The pandemic has exposed the precariousness of the corrupt state and there are direct culprits,” said the left-wing candidate of Peru Libre, who recalled that Fujimorism has been in government for ten years and then had a majority parliamentary “and health has never been programmed as a priority.”. He stressed the need to improve public health. He stressed that health should be a right and not a state service in a subsidiary role of the private sector, as established by the current Fujimori Constitution. Keiko offered bonuses to the families of those who died of covid and raised the salaries of health workers. “The covid is not resolved with communism, with the class struggle,” he said, responding to his rival.

The second block concerned the economy and employment. Castillo insisted on his proposal to renegotiate contracts with transnationals to improve the country’s income. In response to the campaign against him, he assured that his government would not expropriate businesses, businesses or economies. “Welcome private investment, but with clear rules, don’t abuse workers,” he said. Keiko offered tax breaks to the people, loans to small entrepreneurs and increased taxes to large mining companies, something his party has always opposed.

Keiko accused Castillo of being a chauvinist and he responded by reminding him of the forced sterilizations of over 300,000 poor women during the Fujimori dictatorship. Keiko denied that this was state policy. Numerous evidence denies this.

“Here are two politicians, a teacher and the head of a criminal network”, lCastillo said it was time to talk about corruption, reminding his rival of the criminal charge against him for receiving top businessmen, including Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, millions of dollars illegally to fund his campaigns in 2011 and 2016. And he concluded: “To talk about corruption, you have to have moral authority. A corrupt person cannot speak of corruption ”. Keiko was off balance. Having nothing to say to Castillo on corruption, he attacked the secretary general of Free Peru, Vladimir Cerrón, a former governor sentenced to suspended prison for incompatible negotiations. Castillo told him that the candidate was him and not Cerrón.

In the human rights and social policy block, Keiko raised the issue of title to water and land, but nothing about human rights. His father, former dictator Alberto Fujimori, is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity. Keiko announced that she would forgive him. Castillo stressed that the country cannot go back in time and that his government will not be a dictatorship, in clear allusion to the Fujimori dictatorship of the 1990s.

According to a survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) published this Sunday, Castillo reached 40.3% and Keiko 38.3%. A week ago, the IEP raised the candidate who proposes to change the neoliberal model by ten points: 44.8 against 34.4%. Two months ago, at the start of the campaign for this second round, this advantage reached twenty points.

An Ipsos poll, also released this Sunday, gives Castillo the same two-point lead, 45.1 against 43.1%. A week ago, he gave 45 against 40.7%, still in favor of the leftist candidate.

The daughter of imprisoned Alberto Fujimori approaches her rival driven by a massive campaign for her and the support of the mainstream media, which intends to pass off her as a defender of democracy and freedom, leaving aside the long Fujimori’s authoritarian trajectory and he frightens his rival by announcing a supposed “communist dictatorship” if Castillo wins.

The dirty war against Castillo has gone so far as to accuse him of being a terrorist, attributing him alleged links with a small fringe group, political heir to the Maoist armed group Sendero Luminoso., defeated almost thirty years ago, something repeated with insistence and denied with the same insistence by Castillo.

This weekend, a right wing desperate for its possible defeat recruited for this campaign the Venezuelan Leopoldo López, whom it brought to Lima to shoot Castillo. He repeated the scenario against Chavism and announced a convulsive scenario like that of Venezuela if the candidate of Peru Libre won the elections.

Despite the million dollar campaign of discredit and fear against him, as well as the mistakes and some inconsistencies in his campaign, which hit him, Castillo was able to resist and remain the first, albeit now with minimal advantage. . The result for next Sunday has entered the field of uncertainty.