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Revision as of 19:51, 10 April 2006

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Ollanta Humala el mayor delincuente del mundo entero
(Photo: José Cruz/ABr, 2006)
(Photo: José Cruz/ABr, 2006)
Date of Birth June 26, 1963
Political party Peruvian Nationalist Party - Union for Peru
Profession Military

Ollanta Humala (born June 26, 1963) is a Peruvian left-leaning, nationalist politician and a Lieutenant Colonel (retired) in the Peruvian army. At the end of December 2005, he officially registered to run in the 2006 presidential election under the Union for Peru ticket, with his own Peruvian Nationalist Party's support.

Military career

Ollanta Humala is the son of Isaac Humala, an ex-communist lawyer and nationalist from Ayacucho. He attended the Colegio Franco Peruano in Lima and then began his military career in 1982 when he entered the Military School of Chorrillos with the rank of lieutenant.

In 1991, now with the rank of Captain, while taking a basic course in the Military Intelligence School of Peru Humala participated in the Grupo Cacerista. The clandestine group at the time was under investigation by the director of the school and was composed of active and retired military officials who rejected what they viewed as corruption within the Peruvian military and supported a nationalist ideology. Many of these now make up Humala's core base of support.

In his military career, Humala was also involved in the two major Peruvian conflicts of the past 20 years, the battle against the insurgent organization Shining Path and the 1995 Cenepa War with Ecuador. In 1992 Humala served in Tingo María (Huánuco Region) fighting the remnants of the Shining Path and in 1995 he served in the Cenepa War on the border with Ecuador. There have been some accusations that he participated in torture while fighting the Shining Path, under the nom de guerre "El Capitan Carlos" ("Captain Carlos"), while he was the commander of a military base in the jungle region of Madre Mia from 1992 to 1993. While he and the PNP have denied the accusations, and that he ever used such a pseudonym, his brother Antauro Humala in 2006 stated that Humala had certainly used such a name during their activities.

2000 uprising

In October 2000, he led an uprising in Toquepala, (Tacna Region), against then President Alberto Fujimori. The main reason for the rebellion was the return of Vladimiro Montesinos, former intelligence chief who had fled Peru for asylum in Panama after being caught on video trying to bribe an opposition MP. This led to fears that he still had much power in Fujimori's government, and Humala and about 60 other Peruvian soldiers revolted against senior army commanders.

But by the end of the rebellion, many of Humala's men deserted him, leaving him only 7 men. During the revolt, Humala had called on Peruvian "patriots" to join him in the rebellion, and some 300 former soldiers answered his call and were reported to have been in a convoy attempting to join up with Humala. The revolt also gained some sympathy from the Peruvian populace with the influential left-of-center newspaper La República calling him "valiant and decisive, unlike most in Peru". The newspaper also had many letters sent in by readers with accolades to Ollanta and his men.

In the aftermath, the Army sent hundreds of soldiers to capture the rebels. But Humala and his men managed to hide until President Fujimori was impeached from office and Valentín Paniagua Corazao was made interim president. Later Humala was pardoned by Congress and allowed to return to military duty. He was sent to Paris, then to South Korea until December 2004, when he was forcibly retired. His forced returement is suspected to have partly motivated the etnocacerista rebellion which his brother Antauro Humala led in January 2005.

Political career and presidential candidacy

Ollanta Humala on the campaign trail speaking at a radio station in Tacna, Peru (October 2005)

In October 2005 Humala became the leader of the Partido Nacionalista Peruano (the Peruvian Nationalist Party) and is running for the presidency in 2006 on the Union for Peru (UPP) ticket.

Ambassador Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the former Peruvian Secretary-General of the United Nations and founder of UPP, told the press on December 5 2005 that he did not support the election of Humala as the party's presidential candidate. He said that after being the UPP presidential candidate in 1995, he had not had any further contact with UPP and therefore did not take part in choosing Humala as the party's presidential candidate for the 2006 elections.

In November and December 2005, Peruvian Jewish community leaders, including a Rabbi, accused Humala and his group of being openly xenophobic. Isaac Mekler, the leader of the Jewish Association of Peru, later met with Humala and told Peru.com that he does not believe Humala's ideas to be anti-semitic. Mekler also announced his intention to become part of Humala's Partido Nacionalista Peruano, and run for a congressional seat.

Early polls of the presidential race placed Humala second to his right-wing opponent Lourdes Flores, by a small margin. But a March 15-19 national poll placed him in the lead with 31.6%; Flores had 29.1% and Garcia 21.6%. Humala maintains considerable support outside Lima, the capital, and a particular stronghold in Arequipa, Peru's second-largest city. As of April 2006, no candidate was expected to gain a majority in the first round, and Flores was expected to win a run-off.

On March 17, 2006 Humala's campaign came under some controversy as his father, Issac Humala, said "If I was President, I would grant amnesty to him (Abimael Guzmán) and the other incarcerated members of the Shining Path". He made similar statements about amnesty for Víctor Polay, the leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, and other leaders of the MRTA. But Ollanta Humala has distanced himself from the more radical members of his family during his campaign.

Ollanta Humala's brother, Ulises Humala, is running against him in the election, but is considered an extremely minor candidate.

Links with other Latin American leaders

Questioned by the media, Humala denied any ties to Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez, but said he would welcome his support. On January 3, 2006, Evo Morales made his first official visit to Venezuela as President-Elect of Bolivia. Humala attended the official ceremonies held in the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas where both Morales and Chávez pledged their support to Humala in his bid for the 2006 presidential race in Peru. In objection to this, Peru recalled its ambassador to Venezuela, Carlos Urrutia, in protest against Venezuela's alleged interference in the election. In March 2006, Humala also met with President Néstor Kirchner of Argentina in Buenos Aires. During the meeting, Humala stated that regional integration took priority over bilateral agreements with the United States and called Kirchner a "brother" in the cause to integrate Latin America. Humala would also meet with Brazilian President Lula da Silva to discuss regional integration.

Ideology

Andrés Avelino Cáceres, source of inspiration for many Peruvian nationalist movements

Ollanta Humala is often associated with his family's Antauro, Ulises, and Isaac Humala's "Movimiento Etnocacerista", an ethnic nationalist group composed of former and current Peruvian soldiers many of whom are veterans from the domestic conflicts against the Shining Path and to a lesser extent against the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and the brief Cenepa War between Ecuador and Peru. But Ollanta has distanced himself from his family during his campaign and considers himself to be a "nationalist" ideologically apart from the etnocacerista movement.

Etnocaceristas strongly embrace identification with their Incan heritage, nationalization of the country's industries (beginning with recently privatized industries), reintroduction of the death penalty, legalization of coca cultivation, and a strong anti-Chilean stance, particularly against Chilean investors which many etnocaceristas claim are manipulating the country's economy. The name etnocacerista is composed of two parts, the first evoking ethnic identity, particularly Peru's Incan Native American origins. The second part, "cacerista", refers to 19th century Peruvian president and war hero Andrés Avelino Cáceres. During the War of the Pacific Cáceres led the Peruvian resistance against Chilean occupying forces. Since the war, particularly because of the Chilean annexation of the resource rich Tarapacá Region, Chile has become Peru's traditional rival.

Ollanta Humala has embraced the Bolivarian concept of a pan-American republic, often referring to other Latin American nations as "brother nations" particularly with regard to Bolivia which was for a short time in a Confederacy with Peru and which sided with Peru in the War of the Pacific against Chile. Humala has also expressed sympathy with the government of Juan Velasco, which took power in a bloodless military coup on October 3, 1968 and nationalized various of the country's industries whilst pursuing a favorable foreign policy with Cuba and the Soviet Union.

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