During the evening of Thursday September 15 the word “Lourdes” became a Trending Topic on Twitter for a couple of hours, but unlike other times when Peruvian Twitter users tried to make a word or phrase a Trending Topic without success, this time they did it practically unintentionally. In fact, almost no one was proud of it and there were doubts about it. The blog Plan H explains [es]: ¿Un logro peruano? … Obviamente no somos los únicos que hemos conseguido que se convierta en trending topic, alguien màs en el algún lugar del mundo ha usado la palabra Lourdes … ¿Por que? Porque … tuvimos la suerte, por así decirlo, de usar esa palabra todos los limeños twitteros a la vez mientras alguien en otro lado también lo hacía. But why where Twitter users from the capital Lima using the word “Lourdes” so much? The explanation lies in the realm of politics and in the context of the current campaign for mayor of Lima. Lourdes Flores is the candidate that up to a few days ago had the best chances to win the elections, but a recent poll [es] placed her second. These ups and downs in politics are not unusual, but what was unpredictable was the release during a TV show hosted by Jaime Baylyn [es] of an audio segment where Lourdes shows her anger about the poll's results using unguarded language. Sergio Fernández (@SerchAndGo) wonders [es] on Twitter: lourdes flores: “metanse la alcaldia al poto” omg. sera un audio trucado?? sera ella quien lo dice??? LA CAGADA 11:29 PM Sep 15th vía TweetDeck Reactions were numerous and varied given such a phrase. Journalist Ronny Isla gathered what he considered were the best tweets on the subject. These two come from his selection [es], showing that Twitter users didn't limit themselves to repeating the phrase in a mocking tone, but that they tried to go beyond that and analyze the situation: @angelpaezs Ahora cualquier delincuente cuelga un audio de una conversación “chuponeada” y cambia la agenda de los medios. Porca prensa. 11:31 PM Sep 15th vía web Retwitteado por 5 personas @orbisa35 El fondo del asunto es que hay una mano que está meciendo la cuna para el lado que quiere. Y hacia allá nos está empujando. 11:29 PM Sep 15th vía web Retwitteado por 3 personas However, the legality of the intercepted call and the obscure interests that lie behind its disclosure to the public are not the only issues Peruvians are worried about. There is also the fact that during the intercepted conversation they mention the possibility of going to the polling agency to “move the numbers a little bit” in favor of Lourdes Flores. This casts shadows on the veracity of this and other polls, and although Director de Apoyo, the polling agency, has declared [es] that “There was no attempt to tamper with the [numbers],” the doubt persists. During the 2000 presidential elections, the re-reelection of Alberto Fujimori, the power circle of Alberto Fujimori and the head of Peru's intelligence agency, Vladimiro Montesinos (what is now known as the “mafia fuji-montesinista,”), used questionable tactics to bring down candidates. Peruvians were reminded of these thanks to the release of the audio this week. Edson Baldeón, from the blog with the same name, asks a series of questions and offers his thoughts on the issue in the post “On the “butt-audio” by Lourdes Flores [es].” He wonders how the audio reached Bayly, what this shows about Lourdes’ personality, and he also comments on the explanation given [es] by Lourdes: 8. ¿Prácticas montesinistas?? Sin duda, pero el tema de que el asesor y amigo de Lourdes Flores, Xavier Barrón, proponga presionar al director de una encuestadora –Alfredo Torres- y que Lourdes acepte se vea involucrada en esto no es un tema menor. Seamos claros SON TAMBIÉN PRÁCTICAS MONTESINISTAS. Aquí la candidata del PPC tiene que dar las explicaciones del caso. No parece coherente condenar las prácticas montesinistas y a la vez practicarlas cuando les convengan. 10. ¿Qué fundamento se tiene cuando se acusa al fujimontesinismo de este audio??? En mi opinión, los antecedentes son suficientes para sospechar de esta gente y que lo hace para favorecer la candidatura de Keiko Fujimori. The release of something similar to this audio brought down Fujimori's third term in office: the vladivideos [es]. The “valdivideos” were a set of videos which show Vladimiro Montesinos bribing political, business and media leaders to cooperate with the government of Alberto Fujimori. Jacqueline Fowks from the blog Notas desde Lenovo remembers this, but also wonders [es] about Bayly's motives in making the audio public: 1) Bayly está en un canal que tiene dueño y que permite y aprueba dichos contenidos.