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04/09/2006:

"The Corporate Media Begins Their Attack on Ollanta Humala, Candidate for President in Peru"

When we read the Christian Science Monitor's report on the Peruvian elections, "Ollanta Humala leads the polls ahead of Sunday's vote. He reflects views of leaders in Venezuela and Bolivia", we read disinformation and fear. At the same time, we have to smile at another lame attempt by the corporate media to marginalize yet another successful, indigenous, revolutionary leader in Latin America, Ollanta Humala of Peru. Their fear is born from their knowledge that Humala's allegiance is to the people, rejecting the homage paid to Washington by his predecessor, President Alejandro Toledos, a World Bank consultant and before him, Alberto Fujimori.
axisoflogic.com


Coca crisis hangs over Peru elections

Any unannounced 'gringo' visitor to this tiny village is a dead man. As endless coca fields spread into the forests of Peru's Apurimac jungle, mountains of coca leaves dry in the sun of Llaruri's dirt streets, at the heart of one of the world's largest cocaine-producing areas.

'Last time, I came here with a Canadian engineer and coca farmers thought we wanted to eradicate their crops, so they blocked the road, drove us away at gunpoint and threatened to shoot us,' said my driver as we approached the village. 'A local teacher saved us at the last minute by suggesting that they should check our identities first.'

For the United States, a key backer of Peru's anti-cocaine strategy, today's presidential elections pose an enormous challenge to its war against drugs. Nationalist front-runner and former military officer Ollanta Humala has promised a radical shift in anti-narcotics policy, echoing proposals from the recently elected Bolivian President, Evo Morales.

While Colombia remains the world's top cocaine producer, Peru - at number two - is rapidly gaining ground, driven by the area around the Apurimac river, where half of its cocaine is produced. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that cocaine production in Apurimac increased by 70 per cent to 53 tonnes in 2004, with up to 90 per cent of all coca production being used for cocaine. And it warns that output could be about to increase further.