As Castillo nears victory, Peru prepares for what comes next

Left-wing presidential contender Pedro Castillo keeps slim lead over Keiko Fujimori, but official result not yet released.

Lima, Peru – The official result has yet to be declared but Pedro Castillo appears all but certain to be Peru’s next president. The radical-left outsider will face an uphill struggle to unite the bitterly divided Andean nation, however, and the most urgent question will be whether he moderates his politics or insists on the Marxist policies in his Free Peru party manifesto. Those proposals include making Peru’s vast mining sector leave 70 percent of its profits in the country, nationalising the media, and spending 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on education and healthcare – more than the country has ever raised in tax revenues.