[stop-imf] Peru Declares State of Emergency Amid IMF-related Protests

[Robert Weissman]

Peru Declares State of Emergency Amid Protests
Wed May 28, 2003 01:31 AM ET
By Missy Ryan

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Unpopular President Alejandro Toledo on Tuesday
declared a state of emergency across Peru, promising to send out the
armed forces to help rein in a wave of violent strikes that has crippled
transit and public services in a new challenge to a stormy presidency.

"We have decided to declare a national state of emergency for 30 days so
that people can exercise their personal liberties and travel freely,"
Toledo said in a televised address.

"The country cannot be shut down. Democracy with order and without
authority is not democracy," said Toledo, elected in 2001 on promises he
would restore transparency and true democracy to Peru following the
corrupt, authoritarian regime of ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

But the U.S.-educated leader's presidency has been far from rosy as
social unrest mounts from poor Peruvians who complain he has not
delivered on campaign promises. Toledo's approval rating now stands at
an all-time low of 14 percent.

This week, thousands of farmers and health workers joined teachers who
have taken to the streets, marching angrily through the capital,
occupying state buildings in provincial cities, stranding passenger
buses and trucks loaded with food as they block key highways with rocks
and burning tires.

Millions of children have been barred from classrooms for more than two
weeks, while patients stayed away on Tuesday from state hospitals as the
strikes, which seek a raft of demands like salary hikes and tax cuts for
farm goods, drag on.

Toledo also said he would send out armed forces and police to resume
order and would reopen schools shut by striking teachers who are asking
for a raise of 210 soles ($60) to their average monthly wage of 700
soles ($200).

But the government, which hails headline growth that has made Peru the
fastest growing economy in Latin America, says it does not have the cash
to meet that and other demands without endangering International
Monetary Fund-endorsed pledges of fiscal discipline. It has offered
teachers 100 soles ($29).

FIRST NATIONWIDE STATE OF EMERGENCY

"If the government doesn't change its policy of kneeling down before the
IMF ... if it does not look the Peruvian people in the face ... it's
going to have to go," said Jorge Vargas, a high school teacher from the
northern city of Chimbote, part of a crowd of hundreds of teachers
protesting outside Congress.

Following Toledo's address, legislator Luis Iberico, part of
Toledo-friendly party FIM, said that the teachers' strike would be
declared illegal on Wednesday.

Mauricio Mulder, a leading lawmaker for top opposition party APRA, said
"I don't understand why the government is now throwing in the towel."

This is the second time Toledo has declared a state of emergency. He
made the same decree in June 2002, but that measure was limited to the southern
city of Arequipa amid fatal protests against the privatization of two
power firms.

Peru's biggest umbrella union, CGTP, said this week it was considering
calling a massive general strike in July against market-friendly
economic policy.

Some analysts have warned that Peru, which is seen as wedded to an
IMF-endorsed fiscal plan, must tread carefully if it is to avoid scaring
off desperately needed foreign investment with strikes and protests. But
others say that Peru is a safe haven among Latin American countries,
like Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela, which face more serious violence
and economic woes.

Even officials admit that despite a strong economy, people have yet to
feel growth where it counts -- in their wallets.