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Indigenous leader Pizango launches candidacy for Peru president

By LivinginPeru.com

(11/18/2010)Today the indigenous leader Alberto Pizango announced his bid for Peru’s presidential elections, held April of next year.

Pizango, who previously headed Aidesep, a political coalition of groups in Peru’s Amazon Rainforest, said he will promote a multiethnic, decentralized state that defends the natural environment from “Western ambition.”

Although his candidacy is a longshot, it is speculated that Pizango’s bid may draw votes away from the nationalist leader Ollanta Humala, who lost the 2006 presidential in a close run-off to Alan García. Polls now place Humala fourth for the 2011 election.

Pizango was accused by Peru’s government for inciting the violent clash between indigenous groups and police in June, 2009 in Bagua. The incident, known in Peru as “el baguazo,” left 33 people dead. Soon after, Pizango was granted political asylum in Nicaragua when Peru’s government charged him with sedition, kidnapping and inciting rebellion. He returned in May of this year and was promptly arrested in Lima, but has since been released, although his case is still being processed.