Who is Antauro Humala, the "Peruvian Hitler" pointed out as a future minister of Roberto Sánchez

Antauro Humala has once again brought the Peruvian political controversy to the forefront due to his connection with Roberto Sánchez, the communist candidate and disciple of Pedro Castillo who is vying for power against Keiko Fujimori. The former military officer, leader of the ethnocacerist movement and convicted for the violent Andahuaylazo, was presented by Sánchez as a key figure to lead security and defense policy in a potential government.

Humala is one of the most extreme characters in contemporary Peruvian politics. Brother of the former president convicted in the Obredecht case Ollanta Humala, he led an armed rebellion in January 2005 in the city of Andahuaylas against the government of Alejandro Toledo. The uprising ended with four police officers dead, agents held hostage, and a judicial conviction for crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, rebellion, aggravated damages, and the theft of weapons.

After serving nearly 17 years in prison, Humala returned to public life with a nationalist, authoritarian, and openly ethnicist discourse. His current, ethnocacerism, advocates for a radical vision of indigenous identity and argues that political power should remain in the hands of those he defines as “cobrizos”. For such proposals, his critics label him as the “Peruvian Hitler” or the “Peruvian Führer,” a tag that summarizes the supremacist, violent, and antidemocratic nature of his preaching.

His party A.N.T.A.U.R.O. was declared illegal in the first instance by the Peruvian judiciary, after the Prosecutor's Office warned that the group promoted antidemocratic activities, hate speech, and a notion of nationality based on blood and lineage. The ruling also ordered its dissolution and registration cancellation, although the legal battle may still continue in higher courts.

The leftist candidate presented him as a central piece in the fight against crime and national defense. Later, when the former military officer began to talk about reclaiming Arica and Tarapacá, even by armed means, Sánchez himself tried to distance himself and stated that those remarks were solely Humala's responsibility.

The Peruvian left is trying to sell moderation ahead of the runoff, but among its main figures is a person convicted for armed rebellion, with a radical ethnic discourse, threats of invasion against Chile, proposals for militarization, and authoritarianism.