ENAP en Ayacucho and a little bit on Peruvian Politics

In Peru, the government, both national and municipal, has created multiple avenues for youth participation in politics. For example, there is a quota for the number of young people in office. As a result, there are many youth candidates who run for political office such as city council and even mayor. There are also special forums for youth in the community to propose projects that are then funded by the local governments.

In July, I was invited to give a presentation at the 6th annual Encuentro Nacional de Actores Políticos Jóvenes, which is conference for young people who are involved in politics as candidates or in other forms. At the conference, there were about 20 youth candidates from all over the country and about 50-60 others who attended. They come from all over the country and receive training. The coordinators asked me to give a presentation on youth involvement in American politics. This was my first presentation in Spanish in front of a large group of people and political candidates, but it turned out just fine. I talked about the American political system, gave some statistics on youth participation, about political primaries, and then talked about how to engage youth in politics, using the Obama campaign as an example.

The municipal elections are in October and the national election is in April of next year. There is a certain cynicism about politics especially because voting is mandatory. 1) people dont vote for candidates, but rather vote against candidates (lesser evil of the two) 2) political parties dont exist in Peru, and change each year 3) most candidates dont talk about issues nor about solving problems, rather they try to win votes by showing their face the most. I witnessed the latter point in action. Yesterday, I attended a political concert/rally by one of the mayoral candidates in my neighborhood. He is the current mayor, running for re-election (against 16 other candidates. He is not the frontrunner, but rather in the middle) and used public space to contract a popular band in Peru to throw a concert. The idea is to get out your name and symbol (for those that are illiterate) for voting to as many people as possible.

More to come as the election draws near!