Peru was something of a success story in Latin America. According to the Economist’s tracking, from 2001 to 2016, the poverty rate fell from 60% to 21% and the economy also grew at an average annual rate of 5.6%. The government also used a healthy mix of free market policies and export led growth, which was different from the protectionism seen in other countries in the region. Unfortunately, as of late, the country has become politically divided and has produced four presidents and eight finance ministers in five years. This instability has made long term change impossible and the pandemic only made it worse. As of June 2021, COVID-19 killed over 190,000 people and 3 million fell into poverty once again. Now Peru has a new left wing president named Pedro Castillo. He won just 50.2% of the vote, which is only around 70,000 more votes out of 17.5m cast. Castillo barely beat Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the autocrat and corrupt leader who ruled in the 1990s. People believe Castillo has a weak mandate and will preside over a bitterly divided country. He also has applauded socialists like Evo Morales in Bolivia and Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and he seems to sympathize with Communist Cuba. Now Keiko Fujimori is saying that the election was fraudulent and this likely won’t help the bitter division between urban and rural Peruvians. 

In this episode, Drew and Alex try to make sense of how a leftist and a right-wing candidate were the only options left, when there were eighteen candidates in the election. They also discuss what is next for Peru and whether the country can succeed, while also fending off the leftist policies that brought down Venezuela.