President Ollanta Humala’s approval rating declined five points in May to 51 percent, as a result of the mishandling by joint police-armed forces of an operation against remnants of the leftist Shining Path, according to a new poll by Ipsos Apoyo.
The poll, which was published by daily El Comercio, found that the main problem facing the less than a year-old government is narco-terrorism.
According to the poll, 79 percent of respondents said that the fight against narco-terrorists is crucial, while 81 percent said that the state security forces are not prepared to confront the rebels.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that the Shining Path is beating the government. The poll of 1,219 people was taken from May 16 to May 18. It has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
The conflict with the Shining Path heightened in April following the kidnapping of 36 natural gas workers by the rebels. Peru’s government sent in a joint army and police force to capture the rebels, but the operation turned out badly with eight police and soldiers killed, which led to the resignation of the Defense and Interior ministers. The hostages, meanwhile, had been released safely by the rebels in an area not covered by the law enforcement troops.
I invite everybody to join me in my work, “A Quest for Peace”.
We must all strive together in order to bring back the “BASIC VALUES OF LIFE” that have been absent
for a long time from the sick societies we live in.