Peru is nearing the end of the worst possible presidential campaign after learning the update on the pandemic figures, as if it were one hecatomb after another. Of the almost 68,000 deaths that had been computed until this week, it has risen to 180,764, making the Andean country the fifth in the world with the most deaths and the fourth on the continent after the United States, Brazil and Mexico..

A national tragedy and an unpredictable leap from fifteenth place to the updated one, due to the fact that the government has adjusted the technical criteria used, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).. Until now, only those who died with a positive PCR were counted and now six more criteria have been added, including radiological images.

The National System of Deaths had previously warned that there was an underestimation in the number of deaths, which prompted the government to create a cabinet of experts. 70% of the deceased under the new evaluation are older adults.

In this way, Peru becomes the country with the highest mortality rate on the entire planet in relation to its population. And in a region where the virus is advancing faster today, with outbreaks as strong as the one in Argentina, which has led to its resignation from organizing the Copa América soccer. So far only India (331,607 deaths) appears in the ranking among the American giants USA (594,565), Brazil (461,931) and Mexico (223,455)..

Violeta Bermúdez, president of the Council of Ministers, endorsed the words of the WHO, which “estimates that the number of deaths from covid-19 is 2 or 3 times higher than the official figures reported by each country worldwide”.

The polls predict a technical tie

In such a situation, with the consequent emotional impact for the country, the two candidates closed their campaigns this Thursday with more of the same: two extreme visions of the country. The difference in votes obtained by Pedro Castillo (18.92%) in the first round against Keiko Fujimori (13.41%) has dissipated in such a way that it has caused most of the polls to bet on a technical tie.

“The electorate knows Keiko Fujimori and his policies. The determining factor continues to be how the electorate interprets Pedro Castillo, whether as an extremist linked to Sendero Luminoso or a left-wing outsider who is more moderate?”, sums up analyst John Polga-Hecimovich for EL MUNDO.

Neither of them has it easy to convince undecided voters who are no longer so many, less than 20%, and who will end up deciding who is less afraid of the two, if the trade unionist from the radical left who has not achieved get rid of the shadow of the communist Vladimir Cerrón, the head of his party, Peru Libre, or the daughter of the dictator and his extreme right-wing populism, over which an investigation for corruption hangs with a request for 30 years in prison already carried out by the prosecution.

“It will be important to see how many votes Castillo manages to get from the center and the right; he has support there that reflects a line of anti-Fujimorism and his evangelical base,” adds the expert..

“Both are a shame and a danger”

The last debate held between the two candidates has not cleared up great doubts either, beyond the fact that Castillo is not convincing in the melee and that Fujimori, with more political tables, has deployed a series of proposals that seem impossible. “None offer the country a hopeful horizon for the Bicentennial,” says sociologist Juan Luis Dammert.

Peru celebrates 200 years of its independence next year in the midst of a huge political crisis, which has taken away three presidents in a single legislature and which keeps several former presidents behind bars or awaiting trial.

Castillo's programmatic weaknesses have multiplied due to the ineffectiveness of the team that surrounds him, despite what continues to appear as the anti-system candidate. Some of his proposals are outlandish, such as the veto of imports of basic products. His big bet, following the Bolivarian model, is to implement a Constituent Assembly to reform the political system at his convenience with a tailor-made Magna Carta.

The choice for the “lesser evil”, as the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who has given his conditional support, along with a group of intellectuals and businessmen, to Fujimori, even forced her to sign a document with a commitment to preserve democracy.

“The only certainty is that both candidates are a disgrace and a danger. A pandemic within the pandemic,” claudicated writer Luis Yslas.