Alan Garcia's victory in Peru's presidential election will ease tensions in Latin America by halting any immediate extension of the influence of Venezuela's oil rich and radical anti-US government in the region.

But the social democratic leader, who beat Ollanta Humala, the nationalist former army officer, in a second round run-off, takes over a fragmented and polarised society that will be hard to govern effectively. Even though this follows victory for the right in Colombia last month, it would be a mistake to see this weekend's result as signalling a turning of the political tide.