Fujimori signs pledge:

Peru’s presidential front-runner Keiko Fujimori signed a pledge at a debate on Sunday committing her to avoiding the authoritarian ways of her father, in a final appeal to middle-ground voters ahead of next week’s ballot.

Fujimori, 40-year-old daughter of ex-president Alberto Fujimori, has long enjoyed a double-digit lead over her nine rivals but she is not expected to win the simple majority needed to avoid a presidential election run-off in June.

The center-right candidate has struggled to calm fears that she will reactivate the government of her father, now serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption.

“I know how to look at the history of my country. I know what chapters

Colombia rebels free ex-governor:

Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), freed an ex-governor on Sunday held captive since 2013, in a new boost to peace efforts.

“Pleased by the release of (Choco department) ex governor Patrocinio Sanchez Montes de Oca. Much support to him and family. #welcometofreedom,” the Choco governor’s office said on Twitter.

The government launched peace negotiations on Wednesday with the ELN, setting its sights on a total end to a bloody half-century conflict.

Bogota hopes the talks with the ELN will bring it on board alongside Colombia’s biggest rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a bid to end what is seen as the last major armed confrontation in the West.

The ELN is a leftist group like the FARC, but they have fought as rivals for territory in a many-sided conflict that started as a peasant uprising in 1964. (AFP)