The size of the margin

Keiko Fujimori took office on 28 July. She had won June's runoff by fewer than 50,000 votes over her left-wing rival Roberto Sánchez. Foreign Minister Carlos Espá was appointed this week; he had previously worked as communications director at the US embassy in Lima. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau attended the inauguration.[1]

The government's foreign-policy language is unhesitating: the United States is named a strategic partner and the plan is to join the Shield of the Americas coalition against organised crime. The electorate that choice rests on, though, was won by a margin that split the country in two. An alignment that looks firm from outside leans on a thin majority at home.[1]

Three doors opened in the same week

The same government also plans to repair diplomatic relations with Mexico and Colombia and to rebuild ties with Venezuela. When a capital talks in one week about a security coalition with Washington and about normalising with its regional neighbours, it is widening its option set. The strongest counter-reading is that this breadth comes from the arithmetic of coalition management rather than from strategy: a government that won narrowly has to say something to opposing blocs of voters at once.[1]

Where the constraint sits has to do with copper. Peru is a major copper producer that has moved closer to China in recent years. Joining a security coalition takes a signature; changing who buys your exports takes contracts, ports and prices. The people working in the mining regions, whose income depends on those exports, will feel the foreign-policy choice through that second channel more than at the ballot box.[1]

The sign that words became practice

There is a way to measure how much of the talk becomes practice. If Peru formally joins the Shield of the Americas coalition and ambassadorial representation with Venezuela is restored in the same period, the multi-alignment becomes a policy being carried out. If only one of the two happens, it will also be clear which door the government actually opened.[1]