Ollanta Humala

Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso, born June 26, 1962 is a Peruvian politician and the President-elect of Peru. Humala, who previously served as an army officer, lost the presidential election in 2006 but won the 2011 presidential election in a run-off vote. He was elected as President of Peru in the second round, defeating Keiko Fujimori.

The son of Isaac Humala, a labour lawyer, Humala enlisted in the Peruvian Army in 1982. In the military he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel; in 1992 he fought in the internal conflict against the Shining Path and three years later he participated in the Cenepa War against Ecuador. In October 2000, Humala led an unsuccessful military revolt by 39 soldiers in the southern city of Tacna against President Alberto Fujimori; he was pardoned by the Peruvian Congress after the downfall of the Fujimori regime.

In 2005 he founded the Peruvian Nationalist Party and registered to run in the 2006 presidential election. The nomination was made under the Union for Peru ticket as the Nationalist party did not achieve its electoral inscription on time. He passed the first round of the elections, held on April 9, 2006, with 30.62% of the valid votes. A runoff was held on June 4 between Humala and Alan García of the Peruvian Aprista Party. Humala lost this round with 47.47% of the valid votes versus 52.62% for García. After his defeat, Humala remained as an important figure within Peruvian politics.

In 2011, Humala campaigned as a center-left leader with the desire to help to create a more equitable framework for distributing the wealth from the country's key natural resources, with the goal of maintaining foreign investment and economic growth in the country while working to improve the condition of an impoverished majority.

Military career

Ollanta Humala is the son of Isaac Humala, an ethnic indigenous lawyer, member of the Communist Party of Peru – Red Fatherland, and ideological leader of the Ethnocacerista movement, Ollanta's mother is Elena Tasso. He is the brother of Antauro Humala, now in a 25 years prison sentence for kidnapping, for 3 days, 17 Police officers and killing 4 of them; in the small town of Andahuaylas, Antauro followed the orders of Ollanta on January 2005. Humala was born in Peru and attended the Japanese-Peruvian school La Union in Lima. He began his military career in 1982 when he entered Chorrillos Military School.

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 fighting the remnants of the Shining Path and in 1995 he served in the Cenepa War on the border with Ecuador.

2000 uprising

In October 2000, Humala led an uprising in Toquepala against Alberto Fujimori on his last days as President due to multiple corruption scandals. The main reason given for the rebellion was the capture of Vladimiro Montesinos, former intelligence chief who had fled Peru for asylum in Panama after being caught on video trying to bribe an opposition congressman. The return of Montesinos led to fears that he still had much power in Fujimori's government, so Humala and about 40 other Peruvian soldiers revolted against his senior army commander.

Many of Humala's men deserted him, leaving him only 7 soldiers. During the revolt, Humala called on Peruvian "patriots" to join him in the rebellion, and around 300 former soldiers led by his brother Antauro answered his call and were reported to have been in a convoy attempting to join up with Humala. The revolt gained some sympathy from the Peruvian populace with the influential opposition 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. Even so, Humala and his men managed to hide until President Fujimori was impeached from office a few days later and Valentín Paniagua named interim president. Later Humala was pardoned by Congress and allowed to return to military duty. He was sent as military attaché to Paris, then to Seoul until December 2004, when he was forcibly retired. His forced retirement is suspected to have partly motivated an etnocacerista rebellion of Andahuaylas led by his brother Antauro Humala in January 2005.

In 2002 Humala received a Master's degree in Political Science by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Ideology

Ollanta Humala is often associated[by whom?] 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. This association is in spite of Humala's repeated declarations condemning the Etnocacerist movement as a racist ideology.

Ollanta Humala has embraced the Bolivarian concept of a Pan-American republic, often referring to other Latin American states 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.

Foreign policy

Questioned by the media, Humala denied any ties to Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez, but said he would welcome his support in the 2006 presidential election. 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.

On May 8, 2006 Humala met with Bolivian President Evo Morales in Copacabana, Bolivia on the Bolivian border with Peru. While meeting with Morales Humala stated that he stood in "solidarity with the historical and legitimate demand of the Bolivian Republic" of access to the Pacific Ocean which Bolivia lost after the War of the Pacific when Chile annexed what is now the Antofagasta Region of Chile. Humala also explicitly stated that he was not opposed to a free trade agreement with the United States but said that any free trade agreement with the United States would have to be negotiated through the Andean Community (CAN) and signed with approval of all members of CAN. During the meeting Humala emphasised the need to maintain CAN as a bloc to negotiate with the United States and asked Morales to work to help maintain the CAN, referring to the CAN's recently troubles with Venezuela removing itself as a member in protest to the signing of trade agreements with the U.S. by Peru and Colombia.