President Ollanta Humala of Peru with Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Photo from Presidencia Perú on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) The Peruvian left, like that of other countries in the region, is being challenged in the measure of its position with respect to the current protests in Venezuela. Is it a modern left or does it support the repression of Maduro's government? What is a “modern left”? The answers are not simple. Although on the level of the Peruvian population there has been some sympathy for Hugo Chávez, his Latin American leadership and way of doing things, in terms of Peruvian politics, having a relationship with chavismo almost constitutes media and political suicide. In fact, Chávez's support [es] for Ollanta Humala in his first presidential bid was, among other factors, what cost him the 2006 election against Alan García. The Peruvian left is currently in a process of restructuring the forthcoming municipal elections later this year and the presidential elections in 2016. With this objective, it has reconstituted the Broad Left Front, a coalition of leftist parties and movements. In recent days, the Broad Left Front issued a statement [es] about what is happening in Venezuela, which mentions among various points: 1. Denunciamos ante la opinión pública del Perú la ofensiva golpista de extrema derecha contra el gobierno, elegido democráticamente, del Presidente Nicolás Maduro de Venezuela. 2. Esta ofensiva, que sigue un guión conocido, busca la desestabilización económica y política del hermano país y la reversión de las conquistas sociales y de independencia nacional de quince años de gobierno popular. 3. Hacemos extensiva esta denuncia a la derecha peruana y continental que haciendo uso del oligopolio mediático a sus órdenes se ha puesto al servicio de la maniobra golpista en curso. 1. Before the public opinion of Peru, we denounce the offensive right-wing attack against the government, elected democratically, of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. 2. This attack, which follows a familiar script, seeks economic and political destabilization of the neighboring country and the reversal of the social gains and 15-year national independence of the popular government. 3. We extend this complaint to the Peruvian and continental right that is using the media oligopoly at its service to serve the ongoing coup. In the Facebook post's comments, readers can see almost a generalized opinion against the statement, ranging from reactions [es] like, “Broad Left Front, narrow mind” to ” ones [es] such as “I mean, if you support police or military repression… don't complain”, with truly few signs of support. On Twitter, things were similar: Nos fuimos pal carajo con este pronunciamiento del Frente Amplio… http://t.co/9j8kXxBcC0 — Mariana Ramirez (@marianaram87) February 22, 2014 We went to hell with this statement from the Broad Left Front… Lamentable, el pronunciamiento del Frente Amplio sobre la situación en Venezuela — Ronald Gamarra (@ronaldgamarra) February 22, 2014 Terrible, the statement from the Broad Front about the situation in Venezuela De locos manden a Cuba a esta gente Frente Amplio de Izquierda sobre situación en Venezuela – https://t.co/AUij2bXP8B #venezuelalibre“ — Mr.Who (@Mister_Kite) February 22, 2014 Send these crazy Broad Left Front people to Cuba. The Broad Front on the situation in Venezuela The local media also rushed to comment on the statement. El Comercio, considered right-wing, titled its news brief with respect to this as “Broad Left Front led by Salomón Lerner supports Nicolás Maduro” [es] and later published another piece entitled “Statement from Broad Left Front ‘a shame’” [es] which gathers criticism from various Peruvian politicians. Meanwhile, the newspaper Correo, now a member of the same corporate group as El Comercio, said “Peruvian Left endorses repression in Venezuela” [es]. La República, a newspaper more oriented to the left, has not published further comments, except for an interview [es] with Salomón Lerner Ghitis, leader of the Broad Left Front, where he recognized that the Venezuelan economic model has failed, but that “In Venezuela there is a rule of law that must be respected.” On the other hand, one of the leading columnists of La República, Mirko Lauer, believes [es] that “Nicolás Maduro wants to take advantage of the crisis to pass an open dictatorship, ie. one without electoral and democratic coverage. Something like the cubanization of impoverished masses.” Soon subdivisions were developed in the almost never united Peruvian left.