Peruvian politics are complicated

Warning: for those of you who dislike politics and history, stop reading now!

On this day, April 5^th 1992 then president Alberto Fujimori turned Peru upside down. At 10 pm on that Sunday night he dissolved both houses of congress and shut down the judicial system. Using the military, he arrested many senators, congressmen and judges who opposed his political party. The next morning, he proceeded to take control of all media outlets, newspapers, radio, and television. Journalists who had spoken out against him in the past were put on house arrest and he confiscated their computers and notes. Once he controlled the media he used it to smear congress, falsely accusing them of drug trafficking, prostitution, and corruption. Peru lived under his rule for 8 years until 2000 when he fled the country and resigned via fax. During his rule he embezzled over $600 million US dollars, used the presidential jet to smuggle coke out of the country, oversaw forced-sterilization of 300,000 indigenous women, and used the military to conduct mass killings in an attempt to rid the country of the Shining Path terrorists. Today he is in a prison in Lima dying of cancer.

Here is where things get crazy.

This Sunday are the elections here in Peru. His daughter Keiko Fujimori is running for president, and is the favorite to win. Why? Well the people still like her dad. Through his auto-coup he brought financial stability and rid the country of the Shining Path. He accomplished this through his mass killings and by using American aid to arm the peasants to fight the Shining Path. Now the peasants love him, I would too if he gave me free guns. In Peru it is mandatory that everyone votes, so the peasants get a big say. The good news is that Keiko will most likely not receive the 50% majority needed to secure the presidency and there will be a run off between the top two candidates. The question right now is who will get second? It is a dead heat.

There are currently ten candidates running for president. When we arrived in Peru in January there were 17 but seven have dropped out or been dismissed by the election board. It is a new law this election that candidates can not pay voters, until now it was legal. And it seems candidates are having trouble with this law. My favorite was Cesar Acuna, when he was accused of plagiarism while in college he seriously said “it’s not plagiarism, it’s just copying.” When he was removed from the election for paying voters he didn’t even argue it. The election board is suspected of corruption as well.  Keiko’s top competitor was banned from the election due to improperly filling out paperwork but when a video surfaced of Keiko personally giving an envelope of cash to a supporter it was overlooked by the board.

So here is a rundown of some of the current candidates:

Alan Garcia- The two-time former president is best known for 7000% inflation, crashing the monetary system, letting the Shining Path run roughshod over the country, and lowering the per capita annual income to $720. Even in 1989 that is hard to imagine. 

Alfredo Barnechea- He is a close friend of Garcia and many claim he is only a puppet of Garcia.

Gregorio Santos- Currently he is in prison for corruption during his time as governor of a district. While in prison he ran for reelection, and won. Now they are holding his governor position until he is released. They let him out of prison last week for a couple of hours so he could attend the presidential debates.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski- The 77-year-old is very rich. While serving as minister of energy and mines under Alan Garcia he contracted all the government mining projects with… his company. He is also known for selling certain minerals to Mexico for 10 cents a ton and buying it back for $10 a ton, while receiving kickbacks.

Veronika Mendoza- She is currently in a dead heat for second with Kuczynski. She is running on the socialist platform. She wants to increase government spending 50%, withdrawal from free trade agreements, and rewrite the constitution.

On top of all of that the Panama Papers showing tax evasion, drug trafficking and money laundering, has ties to almost every one of these candidates. No one here is surprised by that. 

Overall the whole thing is a mess. On Sunday many Peruvians (10%-15%) will purposefully incorrectly fill out their ballots in protest. Many of those who want to vote correctly still don’t know who they will vote for. I spoke with a man on the street the other day who said he is voting for Santos (the guy in prison in case you forgot). When I asked him why he said, “he is corrupt, but less corrupt then the others.” That is what Peruvians are looking for: the least corrupt candidate. 
 Please pray for Peru this Sunday.

Gran Responsabilidad

This morning I went to a men’s breakfast for the men at our church. I was so nervous. The language barrier is still intimidating.  When I arrived I was relieved to see some German friends from my school. Even though they don’t speak English it felt comfortable sitting with someone I knew. We were served soup and bread, a common breakfast here and the soup was onions, tomatoes, fish and lots of spicy stuff. I like spicy stuff but it was strong enough that I had trouble eating it and I worked up a good sweat.

The most interesting part was after breakfast we had a bible study. It was lead by the pastor of our church Pedro. Of the 25 men at the breakfast I was one of the youngest, most of the men were 50 and older. For the study we read a passage and answered questions about it. But I was surprised by the basic nature of the questions. What is the context of the passage? Who does the passage say Jesus is? What are important things in the passage we should imitate?

Why were the questions so basic? Here is some background: 40 years ago some of the first evangelical Christian missionaries came to this area. They began to teach about Jesus and the bible. The first Christian churches were started. Even 20 years ago there were few Christian churches in the area and most of the churches were small with less than 50 people. Even though Peru has a Christian presence and Christian churches this is a relatively new thing.  These men at the study were not born and raised in the church. They don’t know all the right answers. Even if they came from the Catholic tradition reading the bible is discouraged here. There is still a need to teach basic doctrine to these relatively new believers.

Denominations are not important here. Where there are denominations it causes confusion among the believers. There is no time to argue about which translation is best, what songs to sing, or what clothes to wear. People need to know about Jesus. They need to know that faith in Jesus is more important then attending mass on Sunday. They need to know a relationship with Jesus is more important than sacrificing guinea pigs or idol worship. The church is growing here and the central focus is to share the gospel, and teach about Jesus.

As I discussed earlier this week in school with my Spanish professor he told me I have a gran responsabilidad (important responsibility). Because there is a huge need for sound biblical teaching here. It is a reminder: we are going to Yurimaguas to work with the Shawi people, to help feed children, to help with pregnant women and to teach agriculture; but more importantly we are going to share Christ. So as Christians lets focus on what matters; sharing Christ with a lost and dying world. Es un gran responsabilidad.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then, can the call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”      Romans 10:13-14

                                                                                                                               Josh