Overview
- Rafael Santos told a podcast that voters in Cusco could not think coherently because high-altitude low oxygen affects cognition and compared their behavior to Stockholm syndrome.
- After criticism he defended his remarks on social media and pointed to a 2025 paper in High Altitude Medicine & Biology that studied 48 Andean residents as the basis for his argument.
- Critics and many users on social media said a 48-person study cannot be generalized to Cusco’s population, calling Santos’s claims pseudoscientific and insulting to Andean communities.
- Verónika Mendoza replied from Coporaque by praising local voters, noting Coporaque’s altitude and writing that there is dignity at 3,580 meters, while emphasizing her regional agenda on irrigation, industrialization and tourism.
- Santos’s history as a long‑time, low‑performing candidate frames the episode as part of broader tensions between Lima politicians and Andean constituencies and raises questions about the political use of limited scientific findings.