Monday, May 01, 2006
For election updates, visit University of British Columbia's Max Cameron's blog.
UPDATE: Tomorrow's Financial Times explains LFN's electoral loss: "Ms Flores’ campaign failed to make headway in poorer areas."
Ambassador Wars: Yesterday, Peru pulled its Ambassador from Caracas. Today news cycle has Chavez responding not in-kind. The Miami Herald uses wire copy to report that ‘Venezuela will keep Ambassador in Peru.’ Quotes are from Foreign Ministers Oscar Maurtua (PE) and Ali Rodriguez Araque (VE). Xinhua reports that ‘Venezuela not to recall ambassador despite Peru's withdrawal’ but reminds later that withdrawing Ambassadors was Chavez’ idea. This quote should play well on Wall Street: “Alan Garcia has called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ‘a conceited scoundrel’ for asking Peru and Colombia to withdraw from free trade agreements with the United States.” Agence France Press calmly reports that ‘Peru plays down diplomatic rift with Venezuela’ with a soft Maurtua quote from yesterday's interview on RPP: “I'm confident that an attitude of equanimity will persist.” A separate Xinhua story has a simliar emphasis: ‘Venezuela, Peru try to avoid further escalation of diplomatic row.’ Meanwhile, UPI plays catch up and reports that ‘Peru recalls ambassador from Venezuela.’
Last night: Associated Press (Edison Lopez) offers a full review of ‘Peru Protests Chávez ‘Interference’ in Elections.’ If there is any doubt about Venezuela’s involvement, the article leads with: ‘Peru formally protested remarks by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who called Peruvian presidential candidate Alan García a thief and repeatedly endorsed a rival candidate, Ollanta Humala.’ Merco Press also has a synopsis.
Still Counting: Dow Jones (Robert Kozak) updates the ONPE numbers down to the 1/1000 of a percent but still seems to hedge on Garcia’s passing into the second round. With 99.95% of the vote counted, “Nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala remains in first place with 30.627% of the valid votes … That second place candidate will almost certainly be former President Alan Garcia, who has 24.326% of the valid votes. … The difference between Garcia and Flores is 65,012 votes.”
In other news:
Still Counting: Dow Jones (Robert Kozak) updates the ONPE numbers down to the 1/1000 of a percent but still seems to hedge on Garcia’s passing into the second round. With 99.95% of the vote counted, “Nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala remains in first place with 30.627% of the valid votes … That second place candidate will almost certainly be former President Alan Garcia, who has 24.326% of the valid votes. … The difference between Garcia and Flores is 65,012 votes.”
In other news:
- The Czech Republic’s ČeskéNoviny reports that ‘Police file charges over fictitious Peruvian debt.’
- The Vietnam News Agency reports the Vietnamese Ambassador to Peru Nguyen Van Dao presenting his credentials to President Toledo on April 27. NOTE: “The Government of Peru recently decided to open its embassy in Vietnam and dispatched an ambassador to Hanoi in order to boost bilateral relations.”
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