Woman joins presidential race in Peru

JULIACA, Peru
When the rocks started raining down on her campaign caravan, Lourdes Flores didn't flinch. She kept her smile and forged ahead on the back of a pickup truck, protected by a plastic shield held by an aide.

Flores, a single 46-year-old former legislator in a tight race to become Peru's first woman president, was in enemy territory, a town on the cold, bleak Andean plain bordering Bolivia.

Supporters of Ollanta Humala — a left-leaning nationalist candidate who has captured the imagination of Peru's poor in the run-up to the April 9 elections — were not happy about her visit.