Women Shaping Politics Across the Americas

It's been a good week for women. In the States, Hillary Clinton made history as the first female major party candidate for the presidency. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori lost to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, which is good for all women who are against forced sterilization.

The presidential race in Peru was exceptionally close. Right now the count stands PPK 50.13% to Keiko 49.76%.* Peru has no electoral college, so the presidency is won based on the popular vote.

One thing that helped PPK pull ahead was an 11th hour message from ex-candidate Veronika Mendoza. She won the southern Andes in the first round of elections, in part because she is orginally from there. In fact she is a native of a town you know well by now - Andahuaylillas. On June 1, she recorded a message in Quechua, "Keiko Manan Atipananchu,"** urging supporters not to leave their ballots blank, but to vote for PPK against Keiko. The message was played on radio stations and distributed across social media. And plenty of analysts are saying it was probably a deciding factor in the race.

So there you have it, a woman form a small town may have decided the next president of Peru.

*There is less than 1% of the vote left to be counted, including votes from very rural areas and votes from Peruvians living outside the country.

**Keiko manan atipananchu is the Quechua for the anti-Keiko cry of "Keiko no va." It literally means "Keiko doesn't go," but carries the same basic sentiment as "Never Trump."