Peru Election 2006

Jaime Bayly has written an opinion piece in La Tercera responding to Elena de Humala, Mother of Candidate Ollanta Humala, calling for homosexuals to be shot. The statement outraged the GLBT community in Lima last week.
The Blog Blabbeando: Thoughts of a Latino gay dude in Nueva York has an article discusssing Jaime Bayly’s piece: Update: Peru’s next president won’t shoot gays (but his mom would)

Los guardianes de la moral
Por Jaime Bayly, escritor y periodista peruano
La Tercera, 24 de marzo del 2006
Las declaraciones de los Humala en la prensa de Lima, predicando el odio y la violencia contra los homosexuales y contra mí en particular, me entristecen y preocupan, pero no me sorprenden, porque el periódico Ollanta, que ha circulado por Perú en los últimos años con el nombre del candidato presidencial Ollanta Humala y que he leído con repugnancia y pavor, está lleno de veneno homofóbico y exalta y glorifica la violencia contra los homosexuales (y la violencia en general).
Además, cuando una investigadora de mi programa, El Francotirador, invitó a Isaac y Elena Humala, padres de Ollanta, a una entrevista conmigo en la televisión, le dijeron: “No vamos a ir al programa de ese maricón y díganle que cuando seamos gobierno lo vamos a fusilar”. Ahora, los señores Humala, amonestados por su hijo Ollanta, que teme perder votos por la aterradora franqueza de sus padres, afirman que sus palabras han sido tergiversadas. Pero sólo alguien muy incauto o despistado podría creerles, pues es un hecho probado que defienden la violencia contra los homosexuales, de lo cual hay abundantes testimonios no sólo en las páginas de Ollanta, en las que se deshacen en elogios a los clérigos iraníes por asesinar homosexuales, citan supuestos pasajes bíblicos que justifican esa violencia homicida y propagan la idea de que el Imperio Incaico fue grandioso y admirable, entre otras razones, por linchar a cualquier varón sospechoso de tener sexo con otro varón, sino también en las declaraciones que han hecho en los últimos años, incluyendo esta última, la que desató el escándalo, a una reportera de “Expreso” de Lima, quien tuvo el coraje de denunciarlos.
Ollanta Humala dice que no comparte las ideas de sus padres (si podemos llamar ideas a esos bárbaros llamados a la violencia tribal contra quienes son diferentes a la mayoría o incómodos a sus designios autoritarios). ¿Cómo podríamos creerle, si permitió que su infrecuente nombre fuese también el del periódico Ollanta y difundiera tan siniestras ideas por todo Perú, envenenando a los más rabiosos e ignorantes, que por desgracia son tantos, y conminándolos a linchar, en nombre de su revolución racista, no sólo a los homosexuales, sino a los inversionistas chilenos, banqueros, judíos, al ministro de Economía y al propio Presidente Toledo? ¿No es razonable sospechar que ve con simpatía esa prédica inflamada, matonesca, trasnochada, en la que ha sido educado por sus padres y que tantos adeptos le ha hecho ganar en los últimos años, y que ahora modera convenientemente sólo para ganar las elecciones?
En nombre de la decencia y la pureza, qué ironía, los Humala me acusan de estar “sembrando la inmoralidad a los cuatro vientos” y “haciendo daño a la juventud” por decir que soy bisexual. Se equivocan tan pintorescos guardianes de la moral. Yo defiendo la tolerancia y el respeto a las minorías sexuales, como hacen las sociedades civilizadas, que protegen a las minorías y les permiten organizarse y expresarse. El clan Humala está sembrando el odio y la violencia contra los homosexuales, y esa sí que es una inmoralidad vergonzosa.
Aunque ahora pretenda negarlo por razones de conveniencia política, el señor Ollanta Humala es cómplice de esa abyecta incitación a la violencia, por permitir que su nombre, Ollanta, encabezara un periódico que ha circulado masivamente por todo Perú, con artículos firmados por su hermano Antauro, preso por asaltar una comisaría y matar policías, llamando a linchar y fusilar homosexuales, chilenos, judíos, políticos y opositores. Si él de verdad repudiase esas ideas, debió exigir que retirasen su nombre de ese pasquín, pero no lo hizo y permitió que durante años el grito de guerra “Ollanta” estuviese asociado a esa celebración del odio y la violencia.
Si Humala quisiera demostrar que no es homofóbico, podría tener el gesto tolerante de venir a mi programa, someterse a una entrevista y disculparse por las amenazas vertidas por sus padres y su hermano Antauro, que ahora, desde la cárcel, apoya su candidatura. Pero ha dicho que “nunca, jamás” vendrá a El Francotirador. ¿En qué se diferencia de sus padres y su hermano, si es incapaz de sentarse a hablar conmigo porque al parecer le repugna que no sea un macho cobrizo que odia a los chilenos y a los gays?
Update: Peru’s next president won’t shoot gays (but his mom would)
Blabbeando: Thoughts of a Latino gay dude in Nueva York, March 26, 2006
Ah! What a difference a month makes! The last time I wrote about the upcoming Peruvian elections, Ollanta Humala, a left-wing indigenous candidate, was being questioned about potential human rights violations during his military career and uncertain comments about his proposed fiscal policies (he was also being called a hypochrite for claiming he would accept a gay cabinet member but refusing to say whether he’d support legislation to protect gays and lesbians from being persecuted). Humala was running second in polls to Lourdes Flores Nano, a conservative former congresswoman, and political analysts were saying that his campaign was floundering and might not find footing before the elections.
Today, it is Ms. Flores Nano’s campaign that is in free-fall (she is now third in the polls), Humala is on top and former president Alan Garcia is second. Not that Humala’s victory is secured in next month’s primary elections set for April 9th. He would have to get more than 50% to avoid a run-off and he currently stands at 26%. Nevertheless in this morning’s syndicated United States political gab-fest, The McLaughlin Group, isolationist United States right-wing pundit Patrick Buchanan predicted that “extremist” Humala would be the new Peruvian president.
The gay rights issue, which might have been a blip in the radar during the campaign, also has taken a life of its own and strengthened the perception that if Humala has a weakness, it’s his own family, members of whom have either challenged him politically by running for office in opposition parties (one of his brothers is also a presidential candidate) or spouted incendiary comments to the press.
Humala has been trying to distance himself from comments made by his mother to the newsdaily “Expreso” on March 21st regarding moral values. According to this site, when asked about those who would rape a minor, Mrs. Tasso (pictured above) said: “I bet you that if you execute two rapists by shooting, there won’t be any additional rapes, and by shooting two homosexuals, there wouldn’t be so much immorality in the streets.”
Asked for coments about well-known Peruvian commentarist (and openly bisexual) Jaime Bayly, Humala’s mother added: “That man is sowing immorality and says it everywhere [lo dice a los cuatro vientos], thus people think that this is normal.”
On Friday, Mr. Bayly posted an OpEd response in Chile’s La Tercera. Titled “The Moral Guardians,” Mr. Bayly said, among other things (excerpted translation by yours truly):
Declarations made by the Humalas to the press in Lima, promoting hate and violence against gays and against me as an individual, sadden and worry me but do not surprise me because the Ollanta newspaper, which has circulated throughout Peru in the last few years under the name of presdiential candidate Ollanta Humala – which I have read with feelings of revulsion and fear – is filled with homophobic venom and highlights and glorifies violence against gays (and violence in general)…
[There’s] abundant testimony and not only in the pages of Ollanta, in which people jump over each other with abundant praise for the killing of gays by Iranian clerics, they site supposed biblical passages that justify this homicidial violence and propagate the idea that the Incan Empire was grandiose and admirable for, amomg other things, lynching any man suspected of having sex with another man…
Ollanta Humala says that he doesn’t share his parents’ ideas (if we can call ideas those barbaric calls to tribal violence against those who are different to the majority or those who are uncomfotable with their authoritarian ideals). How can we believe him, if he allowed his uncommon name to be also the name of the Ollanta newspaper, spreading such sinister ideas throughout Peru… inviting [readers] to lynch, in the name of their racist revolution not only homosexuals but Chilean inversionists, bank owners, Jews, the Minister of Economy and even President Toledo?…
In the name of decency and purity, how ironic!, the Humalas accuse me of “sowing immorality everywhere [a los cuatro vientos]” and of “causing damage to youth” because I say that I am bisexual. They are wrong, these pintoresque guardians of morality. I defend tolerance and respect towards sexual minorities, as do civilized societies, which protect minorities and allow them to organize and express themselves. The Humala clan is sowing hate and violence against gays, and that certainly is a shameful morality…
If Humala wants to demonstrate that he is not a homophobe, he could make the tolerant gesture of appearing in my [television] show, agree to be interviewed and apologize for the threats made by his parents and his brother Amauro, who is now supporting his candidacy from jail… How does he differenciate himself from his parents and his brother if he is incapable of sitting down to talk with me because it repulses him that I’m not a copper-toned macho man who hates Chileans and gays?
It must be said that to make his argument, Mr. Bayly, who has written a few rose-tinted novels about gay life among the high class in Peru, unfortunately exposes a bias towards indigenous culture by alluding to rhetoric that links Incan culture to anti-semitic, xenophobic and homophobic ideals, which further muddles the issue.
Bayly also is playing to recent reports that Humala had despectively called Chile an “all-knowing nation” which Humala tried to put to rest today.
For his part, Humala was seen visiting his parents and having a heated conversation with them after their comments were printed in “Expreso.” In a press conference that followed, his parents announced that they would contemplate “silence” for the rest of the presidential elections as not to damage their son’s potential to become the next Peruvian president.