Lima, Peru, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018 — No use trying to walk by a newspaper stand without buying a paper, even if it is in a language I barely understand and it will take me a week to ready a daily. So in the Lima, Peru, airport, I bought a copy of Peru 21, hoping it would help with my Spanish.

And I can’t go past a story about politics, even if it’s about the Oct. 7 mayoral race in Lima. The debate was the night before I picked up the paper, and the coverage was excellent. Ten candidates for the office, but one of them, Renzo Reggiardo, from the Peni Patria Segura party refused to join in, saying he would not “sentar en el mismo lugar con personas que me han agraviado.” (sit in the same place with persons that have aggrieved me). Think of his honor, he said, and refused “to play.”

The paper quoted the other candidates’ statements on their vision for Lima in 2022, security and transportation. Politicians here sounded a lot like those in the USSA, promising life with “segura, para vivir sin miedo,” order, work on transportation projects (“El transito es caotico”) without much detail on how to accomplish security to live without fear, transportation or a vision in 2022 or any other time.

Did Reggiardo’s protest work? Especially since a poll by the paper said 83 percent would not pay attention to the debate, another similarity to the USSA. You remember the midterm elections are coming soon, right? Pay attention.

The election was Tuesday, and Reggiardo got beat by Jorge Munoz from the Accion Popular, with Peru 21’s sister paper, Trome, saying Reggiardo’s biggest mistake was “quizá el error más evidente de todos fue no presentarse en el primer debate electoral” (perhaps the error most obvious of all was not being present at the first electoral debate).

Definitely unhinged tactics.