A far-left Peruvian activist pledging to seize foreign mines and the daughter of a former authoritarian president will clash in a presidential election that offers voters two extremely different ideological options in a country plagued by political turmoil and a pandemic.
The election pits Pedro Castillo, a 51-year-old former professor, who says he will nationalize mining projects and dismantle a business-friendly economic model against Keiko Fujimori, whose father ruled Peru with an iron fist.
The fact that Mr. Castillo, who leads a Marxist-inspired party that glorifies Fidel Castro, could win office, shakes a business class that has thrived as Peru’s trade-friendly economy has grown largely over the past two decades. . Among the main investors here are the subsidiaries of Anglo American PLC, Newmont Mining Corp. from Denver and Aluminum Corporation from China.
“We are often told that only political scientists, constitutionalists, educated politicians, those with high ranks can govern a country,” Castillo told supporters recently. “They had enough time.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he said he sees these elections as a “competition between rich and poor … I see a struggle between boss and worker, master and slave.”