García win in Peru a loss for Venezuela's Chávez

García's come-from-behind victory in the runoff caps a long road to political rehabilitation that began when he left office in 1990 with only 7 percent support after presiding over what was by all accounts one of the worst administrations in modern Peruvian history.

During García's first presidency, economic collapse spawned political violence at the hands of two guerrilla groups and fueled a drug-trafficking boom.

He spent most of the 1990s out of the country, living in political exile in Colombia and France after his successor, Alberto Fujimori, tried to have him arrested on corruption charges. He returned to Peru in 2001, narrowly losing the presidency then to Alejandro Toledo.

In the meantime he adopted the more moderate center-left tendency that has swept through South America in recent years. He sees himself cut from the same cloth as Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chile's Michelle Bachelet.

This time, García takes office during Peru's longest economic boom in decades.

But more than half of Peru's 27 million people live in poverty and they have grown impatient with empty promises. Humala, a left-wing nationalist who promised radical change, won in the country's poorest areas, capturing nearly 80 percent of the votes in impoverished southern highlands.

García promised rapid action during the campaign. He pledged to connect 500,000 homes in Lima to the city's water grid, offered low-income loans for farmers and fishermen. Most of all, he has promised to grow the economy by 7 percent annually to stimulate job creation. Employment is the No. 1 concern of Peruvians in public-opinion polls. Only 30 percent of Peru's workforce is adequately employed on payrolls and with social benefits.

"I voted for García because he offered the more serious alternative. I hope he carries out his promises," said electrician José Luis Contreras after casting his ballot. "People don't want to hear that the economy is growing, but want to feel it in their pockets."

García has also tried to assure the business community that he is not the same free-spending, money-printing populist of the 1980s. "Our message has been responsible change. We are going to reduce poverty and inequality, but do it respecting economic management," says Rep. César Zumaeta, who won reelection to Congress with García's APRA.

But García faces a tough political climate.

Humala's Union for Peru party won 45 out of 120 seats in the Congress and his huge margins in the country's poorest areas will give him leverage to keep the pressure on García as an opposition leader.

García's party recognizes the challenge. "[Voters] want responsible, austere management and a solution to the country's problems," says Mr. Cornejo. "We must deliver."

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