Alejandro Toledo, a former shoe-shine boy turned economist, is now Peru's President-elect, following his victory Sunday in a runoff election against a populist former President.
Mr．Toledo was born on March 28, 1946 into a poverty-stricken farm family of Amerindian heritage．They lived in the tiny village of Cabana, in the department of Ancash, north of Lima．One of 16 children, he grew up in the port city of Chimbote-attending school, while working as a shoe-shine boy and soft-drink vendor.
He was bright in school and won a scholarship to study in the United States—arriving in 1965 when he was just 18 years old．Majoring in economics, he received an advanced degree from Stanford University.
He later went to work as a consultant at the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank．In 1995, he ran for President, but received just three percent of the vote.
In this year's successful campaign leading up to Sunday's election, his expertise as an economist was one of his greatest assets．During his victory speech Sunday night, Mr．Toledo said he would use his experience to help revive Peru's stagnant economy.
Mr．Toledo's protest campaign against the autocratic Peruvian leader succeeded in mobilizing thousands of people to demonstrate at Mr．Fujimori's inauguration last July．But it was the political uproar following the release last September of a videotape showing Mr．Fujimori's spy chief bribing an opposition lawmaker that led to the ouster of the Peruvian President in November.
This role as protest leader and defender of democracy led many Peruvians to support Mr．Toledo's bid for the presidency.
The election of a president of Amerindian descent is a major for many of Mr．Toledo's followers, who say it overshadows some of these character issues．More than 80 per- cent of this Andean nation's 26 million people are poor or of mixed race.
In a recent interview, Mr．Toledo talked about his indigenous (本土的)heritage and the need to heal Peru's divisions, 'I want to be a President of all Peruvians,' he said．'We are experiencing a country with deep divisions, fragmented, deep wounds, polarized politically, economically, socially．If we really want to bring this country into sustained rates of economic growth and social development we need to construct government ability and that means we need to integrate.'
Mr．Toledo will get his chance to do this, after he is sworn-in as President on July 28.
Which of the following is NOT true about Mr．Toledo?