Peru's presidential election: The risk of throwing it all away | The Economist 30/03/2011

The Economist, Lima, 32/03/2011, excerpt/extracto.-

(...) Given the quickening progress, one might expect Mr García, the president since 2006, to have chosen a successor set to romp to victory in an election on April 10th. Both Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe managed that feat last year. But no. Mr García’s approval rating languishes at 26%, according to a poll by Ipsos-Apoyo. His APRA party doesn’t even have a candidate.

Instead, Peru’s election runs some risk of turning into a lesson in what happens when economic growth is not backed up by more effective government, and when a democracy is hobbled by weak and fragmented political parties (see article). Mr García chose to pour public money into roads rather than social programmes. That helped sustain growth. But a fifth of Peruvians still lack access to piped water, almost a fifth of children are malnourished and health care is patchy. The interior ministry, run by a series of APRA mediocrities, has failed to stop Peru from becoming the world’s biggest cocaine exporter. Although it is still a fairly safe country, the murder rate tripled between 2002 and 2008, according to Ciudad Nuestra, an NGO in Lima. Gangland killings among drug mafias are a frightening novelty.