The term ‘populist’ has been applied with certain frequency in Latin-American politics. It has been used to describe, generally with negative connotations, certain people o phenomena irrupting the political scene and altering its ‘normality’. Yet ¿who is actually a populist? Understanding populism as a political strategy, this investigation operationalizes this definition and applies it to the electoral contends occurred in the Andean Region between 2005 and 2006. The objective is to distinguish populist from other candidates and identify those factors that could explain part of the electoral success of some of these leaders.
