Quick Facts
Biography
Isaac Humala Núñez is a labour lawyer from Ayacucho and the ideological leader of the Movimiento Etnocacerista, a group of ethnic nationalists in Peru. He is a former communist leader who served as the model for a colourful character in Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa's novel "Conversation in the Cathedral." He was Vargas Llosa's teacher of Marxism-Leninism when the writer became a member of a university communist cell.
Personal life
Isaac Humala Núñez, of Andean origin and who speaks Quechua, is the father of Ollanta Humala, the president of Peru. His wife's name is Elena Tasso Heredia, from an old Italian family established in Peru at the end of the 19th century. One of his other sons, Antauro Humala, a former army major, ran a rebellion against the government's policies in the Andean city of Andahuaylas in December 2004, in which a police station was seized and some people were killed. His eldest son, Ulises Humala, also ran for president in 2006, and currently occupies a full-time position as a Professor at the National University of Engineering in Peru.
Humala is a self-proclaimed subversive: "a patriot has to be...Christ was and so are we", he declared in an interview.
Beliefs
Humala's Instituto de Estudios Etnogeopolíticos (IEE) is the brain trust of the Movimiento Etnocacerista, which he founded in 1989. He has been an active member of the Communist Party of Peru – Red Fatherland.
According to Humala: "the human species had four races, of which one is practically separate, the white one that dominates the world, the yellow has two powers, China and Japan, and the Black, although without the same weight as the others, at least dominates its own continent. On the other hand, ours does not govern anywhere."
2006 Peruvian general election
Vargas Llosa published an editorial on January 15, 2006 attacking Issac Humala's beliefs. Humala has said that his movement advocates more political sovereignty for Peru's indigenous members as they suffer more than the descendants of Europeans, who he believes hold too much influence in Peru and throughout the Andes.
During the 2006 Peruvian general election, Humala, father of candidates Ollanta and Ulises, said that he would free Shining Path and MRTA leaders Abimael Guzmán and Víctor Polay, since he considers that terrorist movements no longer represent a threat to Peruvian society. This came after a letter was signed by several public figures, including Ulises and fellow candidates Javier Diez Canseco and Alberto Moreno, demanding a fair trial for Polay. Most candidates rushed to condemn Isaac Humala's comments—including both Humala's candidate sons.