Can a Chávista become a Lulaista?

By Michael Shifter

As political makeovers go, Peruvian presidential contender Ollanta Humala's has been striking. The former army officer backed a military coup in 2005, and was the consummate outsider during his first bid for Peru's highest office a year later. He ran proudly as a fiercely anti-system candidate and a self-proclaimed admirer of Venezuela's populist, leftist president Hugo Chávez, losing a runoff by 5 percent to current president Alan Garcia. In 2011, however, Humala has tried to make the case that he is the epitome of prudence and moderation, portraying himself less as a Peruvian Chávez as the second coming of Brazil's wildly popular former president Luiz Iniacio Lula da Silva. The question is: Will Peruvians buy the conversion?

Foreign Policy, May 24, 2011. Read more: http://www.thedialogue.org/page.cfm?pageID=32&pubID=2662