The Collapse of a Once-Promising Democracy
The first choice facing voters is a little-known union leader who leads a Marxist-Leninist party that wants to rewrite the constitution to eliminate congress.
The alternative is the daughter of a former dictator who has surrounded herself with kleptocrats and COVID-19 deniers.
Welcome to Round 2 of the Peruvian presidential election. How did one of the success stories of the developing world end up in such a crazy place?
Many democracies have suffered a collapse of the political middle, but few so starkly as Peru—or so unexpectedly. For years, Peru reported some of the highest growth rates in South America. It reduced the proportion of its people in poverty from 58 percent in 2004 to 23 percent by 2014. Exciting new mining discoveries promise more growth ahead.
Instead, even before COVID-19 struck, Peru faced a dissolution of familiar political structures. The country has rotated through five presidents or acting presidents since 2016. Then came the terrible shock of the pandemic. Peru has endured one. The economic carnage has been correspondingly awful, too.
