A Tough Talker Woos Peru's Poor

Last week, Humala fired his campaign spokesman after he used a common obscenity to describe first lady Elaine Karp, and recently he has tried to distance himself from his family's extreme views.

Meeting with foreign journalists Friday in Lima, he emphasized that his government would respect property rights, press freedoms and foreign investment. But he also placed himself in a new generation of Latin American leaders who aim to represent the poor and powerless, saying, "I am not going to promise a bridge, a little school, those things. I am going to seek to construct dignity."

"This is a process happening throughout the region," Humala said. "New regimes have surged within these conditions, democratically. We are seeing a new face of Latin America. It's trying to construct a family, a Latin American family."

In Uquia, where information about the candidates usually spreads by word of mouth, people are not familiar with the more sensational reports about Humala's family.

"I hadn't heard that," said Rodrigo Menacho Albino, when asked if he knew Humala had once been jailed for attempting to seize a U.S.-owned copper mine to protest government corruption.

What he has heard, the farmer said, is that Humala may finally bring electricity to all parts of his village. His friends, who all grow potatoes and corn on small plots of steeply sloped land, told him Humala might be as good a president as Alberto Fujimori.

Fujimori, who swept to office in 1990 on a similar wave of popular discontent, cracked down on the Shining Path and reformed Peru's economy. But his authoritarian style alienated many, and he was driven into exile in 2000 after allegations of human rights abuses and corruption. He is now in custody in Chile.

"Fujimori was the best president we've had because with him, it was the first time that cars were able to come up here," said Menacho Albino, 28, taking a break from filling potato sacks.

That's how leaders are judged in Uquia. Fujimori is represented by the public minibuses that in the mid-1990s began circulating among mountainside villages, a benefit that easily outweighs the corruption charges in the minds of many here.

Toledo, who is of mixed indigenous and Spanish blood, also appealed to many poor Peruvians and promised to develop the country more equitably. But his tenure has been tarnished by mismanagement and charges of personal misconduct, and in this village his legacy is symbolized by bare wooden poles that still lack electrical wires.

The memory of former president Alan Garcia, who now runs third in polls behind Humala and Flores, leaves a bitter taste in many mouths: Runaway inflation that marked his term in the late 1980s created a sugar shortage in the village. And Flores, 46, is distrusted by many here because, as one woman phrased it, "She's a millionaire who doesn't have any children."

According to a survey released by the United Nations last week, about 60 percent of Peruvians said they either did not know what democracy was or disliked it; about 13 percent of those said they would prefer a non-democratic, hard-line government. In a similar poll last year, about 87 percent said they were not satisfied with democracy.

"Peru has experienced a regressive evolution of democracy in recent years, after Toledo failed to comply with the expectations of the public," said Marta Lagos, a Chile-based pollster. "That's why Humala has such a chance to be elected, because he's grabbing at this idea that he represents a contrast."

With dissatisfaction ruling the day, all of the candidates are running on campaigns of change. For example, Flores -- who has said she will support the free-trade agreement pending with the United States -- has emphasized her gender along with her desire for fiscal discipline, and she has earned support from many who believe a woman could bring more honesty and compassion to government.

But no candidate represents more of a stark change than Humala, which helps explain why about 40 percent of the poorest fifth of Peruvians support him and only about 1 percent of the richest fifth do, according to recent polls.

"Politicians are always promising things to us," said Benancia Cochachin Palma, 60, tending to her small herd of sheep near a cornfield. "They need to deliver sometime."

Special correspondent Lucien Chauvin in Tacna contributed to this report.