MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil government celebrates Humala’s victory; invites president-elect to Brasilia

Marco Aurelio García: ‘we are most satisfied’

Brazil’s presidential foreign affairs advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia celebrated the victory of nationalist Peruvian president elect Ollanta Humala who beat Keiko Fujimori in the Sunday run off by a minimum difference.

“We are most satisfied” said Marco Aurelio. He added that President Dilma Rousseff was on the phone with Humala Monday morning to congratulate him. “It was a good conversation, Dilma wished him luck. He was very emotional, very much enthusiastic about Sunday’s events”.

Marco Aurelio also confirmed that the Brazilian president would be travelling to Peru July 28 for the official inauguration ceremony of Humala and anticipated that the president elect has been invited to Brasilia before that date.

According to the latest official vote count, 95% of ballots, which has been very slow in rural areas, the strong hold of Humala, the president elect collected 51.48% of ballots and Ms Fujimori, 48.51%.

Keiko Fujimori personally congratulated Humala at his headquarter on his victory and promised a responsible opposition with ‘bridge building”.

“I recognize his triumph” said the 36-year-old congresswoman meeting the press. “It’s important that the country continues its economic course and that it has clear rules”.

Addressing his followers Humala promised “economic growth with social inclusion”. He also underlined that “governing a country is not a one man’s business” and promised to convene the “the best minds and technicians be them independents or intellectuals, so we can concentrate on a wide based government where nobody feels excluded and all feel represented”.

Brazilians had a major influence in Humala’s victory that in 2006 lost the run-off with President Alan Garcia. At the time his mentor and advisors were from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez: he even wore red vest and cap (Bolivarian style), had himself called ‘Comandante’ and promised to nationalize Peru’ natural resources.

This time however, with Brazilian advisors, close to Lula da Silva’s Workers Party, he begun wearing suit and tie, dropped Comandante for Ollanta, promised to respect contracts and argued the clue for social inclusion was an expanding economy with distribution. He toned down his ultra nationalist speech which had rattled neighbouring Chileans and expressed support for relations with Latin America and Mercosur.

With insufficient congressional support Humala's party is expected to form a working alliance with former president Alejandro Toledo, who came in fourth in the first round of voting. Toledo is a former World Bank economist and helped consolidate Peru’s open market and private investment policies