Posted on 02/09/2004 6:15:13 AM PST by Pikamax
Many Peruvians Are Unhappy With President
Monday February 9, 2004 1:46 PM
By DREW BENSON
Associated Press Writer
LIMA, Peru (AP) - From her dirt-floor corner shop in the grim Pachacutec shantytown, Isabel Guzman gazes out at row upon row of shacks sprawling down toward the distant desert coastline.
What the 25-year-old mother doesn't see is any salvation coming from embattled President Alejandro Toledo.
``I thought that since he grew up poor he would be different, but things are just getting worse,'' Guzman says of Peru's first elected president of Indian descent. ``Maybe someone else could do better.''
She's not alone.
Toledo's approval rating in opinion polls has plunged to 7 percent, a new low for his struggling presidency, and some politicians and commentators are urging him to cut short his five-year term and hold new elections.
Although a poor nation, Peru is economically stable and far from the political crisis it faced three years ago, when a corruption scandal toppled President Alberto Fujimori's authoritarian government.
But gains from 29 straight months of economic growth under Toledo's pro-business policies have not trickled down to most Peruvians - especially the poorest, who give Toledo the lowest marks in surveys.
Toledo, 57, took office in July 2001 heralded as a champion of democracy in Peru after 10 years under Fujimori.
At the time, Toledo's popularity rating stood near 60 percent. But support quickly faded as Peruvians grumbled he wasn't delivering on his campaign promise to quickly produce jobs in a country where nearly 10 percent of people are out of work and 65 percent have jobs that aren't full-time or don't have benefits.
Missteps only compounded the discontent.
Many people viewed Toledo as insensitive to the plight of the poor when he used government funds to pay for weekends at a fancy beach resort in northern Peru and society buzzed over his fondness for $150 bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label Scotch whisky.
The president also spent months resisting public demands before cutting his monthly salary from $18,000 to $8,400, while police and teachers earn less than $300. He also fought acknowledging that he had fathered a daughter, now a teenager, out of wedlock.
Toledo's popularity has roller-coastered since, remaining below 20 percent most of his term.
He last peaked in November. But another downward run set in with a string of scandals leading to the resignations of four government ministers, including his popular Cabinet chief, Beatriz Merino.
The latest headache erupted in late January with allegations that a former Toledo adviser, Cesar Almeyda, met two years ago with a fugitive general who was wanted on corruption charges.
The general, Oscar Villanueva, who later committed suicide, had been accused of being a bagman for Fujimori's now imprisoned intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
Allegations that Toledo may have cut a deal with the very people he built his political career crusading against sent Peru's media and political class into a frenzy.
Toledo was forced to address the matter in a late-night national message Jan. 31. ``I am against all acts of corruption,'' he said, and vowed to punish Almeyda for going behind his back to meet with the general.
But Toledo's words did little to quiet his critics and a poll released two days later put his approval rating at 7 percent. Ninety percent of the poll respondents disapproved of the president's performance.
``This government is not viable in the shape it's in,'' said Congressman Rafael Rey, a harsh Toledo critic who just introduced a constitutional amendment that would allow a sitting president to curtail his term and call early elections.
Even political moderates want a makeover. Valentin Paniagua, who was transitional president for eight months between Fujimori's downfall and Toledo's inauguration, recommends that Toledo form a new Cabinet with politically independent professionals.
``That could be a formula to give Peruvian democracy the oxygen it requires,'' Paniagua said.
But not everyone sees a need for change. Some Peruvians see the uproar as just a distraction that allows the political class to avoid tackling a laundry list of real issues.
``What's the problem?'' said Juan Alvarado, 33, a part-time soap salesman in Callao, Lima's port city. ``I don't make a lot of money, but I can take care of my children.
``If I really thought that things would improve if Toledo left office, I would say he should go. But I don't think it really makes a difference.''
Egad, think how a coffee embargo could devastate the economy and productivity of Seattle, Washington!
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