Peru

Background

Peru, once part of the great Incan empire, has been a land of ongoing struggle and revolution dating back to the Spanish Conquest. Finally in 1945, Peru emerged from decades of dictatorship with the inauguration of President José Luis Bustamente y Rivero. But Bustamonte y Rivero served for only three years before beginning a rapid succession of political turnover. Still, Peru's fragile democracy survived. In 1985, Belaúnde Terry was the first elected president to turn over power to a constitutionally elected successor since 1945. Then came Alberto Fujimori.

When Fujimori won the 1990 elections, he was quick to suspend the constitution, and impose censorship. Citing continuing terrorism, drug trafficking, and corruption, he dissolved Congress in April 1992. And while he is hailed as having vanquished most of the Shining Path, he has done so at great cost to the basic rights of the Peruvian people.

An estimated 4,000 Peruvians were disappearanced" during the “counter-insurgency” war and some 2,500 Peruvians remain in jail – many serving life sentences – under the Fujimori anti-terrorism laws. These civilians were convicted, often following confessions under torture by hooded military judges and without proper opportunities of defense. Today, prisoners are clamoring for their cases to be reviewed, say spokespersons for Human Rights Watch.

Elected on a human rights platform, the current Toledo government is making efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the widespread corruption and human rights abuse of the Fujimori years. Two key figures, the de facto head of the National Intelligence Service, Vladimiro Montesinos, and former army commander Gen. Nicolás de Bari Hermoza Ríos, are both in prison facing charges of human rights abuse. In addition, arrest warrants have been issued to former President Alberto Fujimori, who now resides in Japan.

Today Peru is considered to “be in recovery” with an estimated Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 4.5 per cent, one of the fastest growing economies in the region. Yet it is precisely the economy that is the heart of the political dilemma confronting President Alejandro Toledo, whose approval rating has slipped into single digits.

A former World Bank official, Toledo promised upon taking office in July 2001 to create 1 million jobs in his five-year term. Much of Peru's recent economic success has been built on exports projected to exceed $10 billion this year, with half of that revenue is derived from mining. But mining has only succeeded in serving the interests of a few.

In contrast, smallholder coffee producers say that the current government has done nothing to help smallholders survive the current crisis. “In his recent address, the President dedicated only four words to us,” says Lorenzo Castillo of the Peruvian Junta Nacional del Café. “He only said that a National Coffee Council has been created; no reference was made to the crisis that we are living in 210 districts and 47 rural provinces where 1 million people live by the fruits of their labor in coffee.”

Resources:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/peru.html
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/03/peru-hr-0320.htm