Posted on 06/18/2002 2:51:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LIMA - Soldiers took control of the southern department of Arequipa on Monday in an attempt to squelch riots that, by government estimate, have caused $100 million in damage. The rioting, meanwhile, spread to a neighboring province.
President Alejandro Toledo declared a 30-day state of emergency in the department the previous day to control violent protests that erupted after the government sold two power generators to Belgium's Tractebel on June 14.
''Nothing justifies violence against other Peruvians. This spectacle [in Arequipa] hurts us all and leaves deep wounds,'' Toledo said in a nationally televised address on Sunday night.
The government claimed that the losses in the city of Arequipa -- Peru's second-largest city, 460 miles south of Lima -- included millions in damage at the airport.
More than 100 people were injured and one student killed. Edgar Pinto, 23, was hit in the head with a tear gas canister launched by police. The military decreed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Rioters tore up cobblestones from the city's colonial central square, creating blockades to battle police and using them as weapons to attack public and private buildings. Local police said a number of banks and state offices sustained substantial damage.
Flights to and from Arequipa were suspended. On Sunday, a military helicopter plucked up 11 Baptist missionaries stranded at the airport and carried them to a nearby air force base. The missionaries, from Cash Point Baptist Church in Ardmore, Tenn., were unhurt.
The police clashed with more than 100 protesters midday Monday in Arequipa. The demonstrations spread to the neighboring department of Tacna, on the border with Chile, where rioters blocked the Pan-American Highway with burning tires.
The news agency Agence France-Press reported that between 3,000 and 4,000 rioters took over the local state-owned television station, the national tax service and the provincial offices in Tacna.
Tacna Mayor Luis Torres called on Toledo to reconsider his administration's privatization policies.
Tempers have been rising in Arequipa and other southern departments for the past few months, with local politicians and left-leaning local groups opposing the government's plan to privatize state-owned companies.
A nationwide strike was called in mid-May to protest privatization and several mayors, including Arequipa Mayor Juan Guillén, have been on a hunger strike for a week to oppose the government's plans.
Privatization is one of the most controversial components of Toledo's economic policy, with more than 60 percent of Peruvians rejecting privatization in public opinion polls.
Security forces stand guard while people protest on the runway at the Arequipa airport, in Peru's second largest city, June 16, 2002. Residents of Arequipa blocked the airport as they stiffened their opposition against the sell-off of two electricity companies. Flights were canceled after the protesters walked onto the runway and refused to leave. Peru declared a state of emergency in Arequipa, after protestors caused some $15 million damages. REUTERS/Julio Medina
Public opposition to the government's economic policies, especially privatization, is one of the reasons for Toledo's precipitous decline in public opinion polls since taking office last July.
In the most recent survey, done by the Apoyo polling firm and released Monday, Toledo's popularity dropped to 21 percent.
In the same poll, 63 percent said the economy was worse today and a year ago. Toledo's popularity is lowest in the south, ironically the region where he racked up some of his highest vote tallies last year.
The government hopes to raise $700 million this year from privatization as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. It has taken in more than $550 million so far, including the $167 million paid by Tractebel for the two power generators in the south on June 14.
Opponents claim privatization, which began under former President Alberto Fujimori's administration (1990-2000), has not brought any benefits to the population. Furthermore, Congress is investigating earlier sales, alleging that the Fujimori administration used privatization to person enrichment.
But several U.S. officials reacted with skepticism to these gloomy scenarios. ''There is a general [regional] commitment to market economies and open trade that remains firm,'' says Lino Gutierrez, the No. 2 official at the U.S. State Department's Latin American affairs office. ``We are encouraged that the Argentine government is beginning to take the steps necessary to put the country on better economic and financial footing.''
Asked about the South American domino scenario, another senior Bush administration official noted that the same kinds of theories were floating around a little more than year ago, when many predicted that populist former President Alan García would win in Peru, and that leftist former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega would win in Nicaragua, and that the whole region would move left. It didn't happen. Bush administration officials are confident that, over the next three months, the U.S. Congress will give President Bush ''fast-track'' authority to expedite new free-trade agreements, and that this will lead almost immediately to expanded trade benefits for Andean countries, and to the signing of a bilateral free-trade agreement with Chile. ''All of these things are going to change the atmosphere in this hemisphere,'' a senior Bush administration official says.***
Argentinians gripped by hunger in country's worst recession ***On March 23 a truck carrying 22 cattle overturned near Rosario, 180 miles to the north. As hungry shantytown dwellers gathered around the injured animals, men appeared with butcher's knives and carted away dripping sides of beef. Sociologist Artemio Lopez, at the Equis consulting group, said the government's "basic food basket" of essential goods like bread, rice and eggs soared 47.4 percent in the first five months of the year.
"With each passing day there is more hunger in Argentina," said Lopez. To properly feed a family of four cost 215 pesos in March and 252 pesos in April, government figures show. That's an increase from $61 to $72, and salaries haven't risen at all. The cash-strapped government has social programs for the poor, but critics say these can't keep pace with the spreading crisis. On May 17 the government started dispensing aid worth $42 a month to 1 million unemployed heads of households. The critics say it should be double that amount. ***
Venezuela - Chavez facing a storm of coup threats - Wary Venezuelans hoard food, guns*** CARACAS - A new wave of coup threats against President Hugo Chávez is pushing Venezuelans to the edge of hysteria, with many residents of the capital stockpiling food and condo associations preparing an inventory of guns in case of looting. Clandestine communiqués and videos from alleged military officers vowing to topple the leftist president emerge almost daily. As each rumor peaks and wanes, the country's battered currency fluctuates wildly against the U.S. dollar. The threats and an accompanying gusher of dire rumors have sparked an unprecedented crisis in this oil-rich nation, virtually paralyzing the country and awakening fears of bloodshed, even civil war.
U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro said Wednesday the coup rumors helped prompt a State Department warning this week that Americans in Venezuela should take security precautions. ''In a country where there are so many rumors, it's important for foreigners to be careful,'' he said. The crisis atmosphere is even more intense than in April, when a sudden military coup forced Chávez out of power for two days amid a whirlwind of political violence and looting that left 70 dead. ''The country is on the verge of a nervous breakdown,'' the centrist TalCual newspaper said this week in an editorial that called for calm.***
Colombia - With threats to kill public servants FARC halts 30 municipalities as Colombian mayors resign*** About 500 municipal workers -- including town council members, judges, police inspectors and secretaries -- have also quit, Toro said. Ignoring the rebel order can be lethal. When Luis Caro, mayor of the town of Solita, missed a FARC-imposed deadline to bow out earlier this month, he was shot dead by the guerrillas.
Many analysts believe the FARC wants to erase all traces of government from hundreds of towns in order to create a power vacuum, then move in and take control. With more territory under its domain, experts say, the rebel group would be in a stronger position should the Colombian government reopen peace negotiations. "It's a very sophisticated strategy," said Vicente Torrijos, who teaches political science at Rosario University in Bogota, the nation's capital. "What's at stake are the conditions under which a new round of peace talks will be held."
President Andres Pastrana's government is pleading with mayors to stay put, offering them flak jackets, escorts and armored cars. His administration says it cannot accept resignations of public officials coerced by guerrillas at gunpoint. Even so, a domino effect appears to be taking hold. The rebel strategy has proved so effective in the south that the FARC last week extended decrees to parts of Arauca, Cesar and Bolivar states in northern Colombia.
At the Huila state government building in Neiva, an official said she has received letters of resignation from seven of that state's 37 mayors. Moments after she spoke, a nervous mayor burst into the room to announce that he, too, intends to abandon his post. "I have to," said Gentil Bahamon, mayor of the village of Suaza. "Besides, all my employees have resigned, so how can I work?"
Ever since the popular election of local officials began in Colombia in the early 1990s, small-town mayors have come under pressure from the guerrillas, who often outnumber police and army troops in isolated regions. During the electoral campaign two years ago, for example, the FARC met with scores of mayoral candidates to recommend rebel collaborators for city jobs and to demand payoffs from municipal budgets. Over the past 18 months, 14 mayors have been killed and 16 others kidnapped.
Last month, the guerrillas abruptly switched tactics when they began to issue expulsion orders. In some towns, they ordered only mayors to quit. Elsewhere, they told all civil servants to either resign or to simply stop working. "The mayors are bowing to the rebel warnings, because they know that these people are capable of killing them," Toro said. "This could generate an unprecedented institutional crisis, which is what the FARC wants."***
Cuba - Slogans for Castro "Untouchable Socialism" Rule - Vigilance committees start gathering signatures ***Many Cubans go along with many official campaigns because of neighborhood pressure, habit, or resignation, they say. Cubans participate "for the same reasons they always do, for the same reasons they go to the marches," said dissident Vladimiro Roca, a former military pilot and son of a revered communist leader. "The government obligates them, they have to go," said Roca, who was recently freed from prison after serving five years for criticizing Cuba's Communist Party. "If they don't go, they lose their jobs. And if they lose their jobs, they don't have any other way out."***
Peru puts sale of power companies on hold - Reuters - [Full Text] AREQUIPA, Peru -- In a sign Peru's government was not out of trouble even after reaching a deal to defuse the worst crisis of President Alejandro Toledo's infant presidency, Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi quit Wednesday, citing splits over the handling of protests in the south.
Rospigliosi announced his "irrevocable" decision three days after Toledo declared a 30-day state of emergency in Peru's second city, Arequipa. Some 1,700 troops and police were dispatched to quell protests by furious residents fearing layoffs after Toledo reneged on a pledge not to sell two power companies.
It was the first change to the Cabinet since Toledo -- at record lows in opinion polls -- took office last July.
Rospigliosi's announcement came hours after Vice-President Raul Diez Canseco unveiled a deal with local leaders in Arequipa to halt the protests, which was greeted there with jubilation. Diez Canseco earlier announced the government had decided not to finalize the privatization of electricity companies Egasa and Egesur until a court had ruled whether it was valid.
"I present my irrevocable resignation ... As you know, I did not agree with the response to the events of the last few days. I told you and all the ministers," Rospigliosi said, reading a resignation letter to Toledo live on television.
Toledo's spokesman said it was not immediately clear who would replace Rospigliosi, but said no one else would quit.
A Belgian company, Tractebel, which won an auction for the two generating companies last Friday with a $167.4 million bid, said it had suspended preparation of the paperwork for teh deal. The company is a unit of French utility Suez.
Local leaders in Arequipa had challenged the legitimacy of the sale. The government says it will appeal if it is declared invalid, but will respect a final legal ruling.
One man died, another was brain dead, 200 were injured and there were damages estimated at $100 million from the week-long disturbance.
Local officials had been insisting that Toledo explain why he backed down on a written pledge not to sell the companies.
"This is the first time a government has had to admit it was wrong and has apologized ... to Arequipa," Mayor Juan Manuel Guillen told thousands waving flags in the main square.
Political analysts said part of the problem was that Toledo had pushed ahead with the sales ahead of regional elections in November that will devolve more power away from Lima. He is already expected to reshuffle his Cabinet next month.
Toledo, who signed a written pledge during campaigning for 2001 elections not to sell Egasa and Egesur, sent a message to Arequipa that fell short of an apology saying a fragile economy had meant he could not fulfill all campaign promises.
The protests had sparked a sympathy strike across southern Peru from the border with Chile to the border with Bolivia, including the tourist capital Cusco, Wednesday, halting public transport and stranding tourists bound for the Inca citadel Machu Picchu or the picturesque Lake Titicaca.
The debacle is a bitter blow for Toledo, who promised privatizations "with a human face" and hopes to raise $800 million this year to plug the budget deficit and fund road, power, health and education projects in this poor nation.
Peruvians are already wary of privatizations. Ex-President Alberto Fujimori, who was fired in a corruption scandal in 2000, raised $9 billion by selling state firms in the 1990s but much of the cash was wasted and some jobs lost. [End]
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