LIMA : Vargas Returns
Although Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa says he has given up politics, he is scheduled to return from Europe to participate in a three-day convention of the center-right Freedom Movement starting Friday.
Vargas Llosa finished first in the opening round of last year’s presidential election but left the country after losing a runoff to current President Alberto Fujimori. However, he is still chairman of Freedom Movement, which he helped found in 1987.
Freedom Movement’s future is regarded as unpromising without the famous novelist at its helm. Vargas Llosa insists, however, that he will not accept reelection to the chairmanship this weekend.
He has said he plans to spend the next two years lecturing abroad, in Germany and then at Harvard University. Movement leaders are expected to try to change his mind.
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