Momentous Presidential Elections in Peru and Ecuador

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On April 11, 2021, Ecuador and Peru held tense and hard-fought presidential elections. In Ecuador, it was the much-anticipated second round between “neoliberal” businessman Guillermo Lasso (making his third run at the presidency) and “progressive” Andrés Arauz, generally regarded as a stand-in for former President Rafael Correa. In Peru, it was the first round of presidential elections, which were marked by extreme fragmentation, with 18 candidates spread across a chaotic political field full of weak, dysfunctional, and (in many cases) newly-formed political parties. Both contests took place against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ecuador, Lasso surprised many by decisively defeating Arauz, and in Peru, Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori (each of whom won less than 20% of the vote) scratched their way into the second round. Observers offered punditry galore.

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