Unfortunately, it appears that many Latin American countries veer toward dictatorship no matter what we do. Do we embargo them all? Here's the latest:
Fujimori Defies Peru Vote Warnings
By MONTE HAYES
.c The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru (May 28) - President Alberto Fujimori risked international isolation and violent protests in his quest Sunday for a third term in a runoff election boycotted by his rival and characterized as tainted by foreign monitors.
Voters lined up by the hundreds to cast ballots in Lima and around the country, disregarding challenger Alejandro Toledo's call to stay away from the polls. Peruvians faced fines if they did not vote, but many said they planned to mark ''no to fraud'' on their ballots.
''Naturally I'm going to void my vote, a vote of protest, because what we want is to regain democracy,'' said Gerardo Cantano, 52, an out-of-work accountant. ''We've never seen this before, a president clinging so tightly to power. He's bringing us economic isolation. There will be no foreign investment.''
He spoke in La Victoria, an inner city working-class neighborhood in Lima with high unemployment. Posters of Fujimori's smiling face hung from lampposts on the street outside the school where people voted. Polls closed late Sunday afternoon.
As elsewhere, soldiers and police patrolled the nearby streets to control any outbreak of violent protests by anti-Fujimori demonstrators. As the day wore on, officers used tear gas and water cannons to disperse small groups of protesters who tried to gather in plazas in downtown Lima.
Fujimori, who came to power in 1990, counted on solid support among Peru's poor majority to deliver certain victory and weather the international storm provoked by the refusal of election officials to delay the disputed poll.
His support is solid in the sprawling shantytowns on Lima's outskirts, where he has paved streets, installed electricity, built schools and provided soup kitchens for the poor.
In Lurigancho, located among barren, dusty foothills on Lima's eastern outskirts, large red-and-white letters painted on the school's front wall said ''Fujimori Gets Things Done!''
Maria Marin, 40, waiting in line to vote with two small daughters in tow, agreed with the message.
''He is the only one to get things done for us,'' she said, repeating Fujimori's campaign slogan. ''He paved the streets, fixed up the schools. More than anything, he is with the people. When it rains, he gets his feet muddy.''
The 61-year-old Fujimori, dubbed ''The Emperor'' for his autocratic style but with a common touch that appeals to Peru's poor, ignored the boycott by Toledo, violent street protests and the withdrawal of foreign monitors who warned a fair vote could not be guaranteed.
Fujimori was seeking a third five-year term despite a constitutional ban on three consecutive terms. On the eve of the vote, Toledo said the refusal of election officials to postpone the runoff ''announced the death of democracy in Peru.''
But after casting his ballot in Lima, Fujimori smiled amid a crush of supporters and insisted ''the absence of observer missions doesn't take away from the validity'' of the election.
He noted that Toledo had not formally removed himself from the race or election officials would have already proclaimed a winner.
''This is an election in which there are two candidates because Mr. Toledo has not withdrawn. If he had withdrawn, then there wouldn't be an election,'' Fujimori said.
He predicted Sunday's vote ''will demonstrate to the international community that this is a clean and fair election and there is no coercion of any kind.''
Toledo said he would refuse to recognize any Fujimori victory.
''Fujimori is going through the second round alone. We are now starting the third round, a round for democracy,'' said Toledo, who added he didn't cast a ballot. ''We have called for peaceful resistance.''
Toledo also disputed the fairness of the runoff.
''Here you have a soccer game in which one of the teams is owner of the field, writes the rules of the game, chooses the referees, decides when the game starts and ends and decides which news media will broadcast it. You know ahead of time who is going to win,'' he told reporters.
Toledo spent the afternoon in a poor district of unpaved streets and cement-block homes where hundreds of people gathered, lofting banners and shouting ''Toledo, president!'' repeatedly as dozens of police looked on.
Promising jobs and capitalizing on his Indian appearance, the 54-year-old Toledo made a surprising surge in the first round. But Fujimori fought back, depicting the U.S.-trained economist as a populist who would plunge the country back into the political chaos and hyperinflation of the 1980s.
Fujimori won 49.9 percent of the first-round ballot, just shy of the majority he needed to avoid a runoff against Toledo, who collected 40.2 percent and afterward complained that fraud prevailed.
But election officials disregarded growing international pressure to postpone the final round in order to evaluate new software for tabulating votes. In the first round, election officials were unable to explain how the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of voters by more than 1.4 million.
More than 14 million Peruvians were registered to vote.
On Friday, President Clinton made a last appeal to Peru to postpone the runoff. He warned that relations with Peru ''inevitably will be affected'' if there is fraud.
AP-NY-05-28-00 1920EDT
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. |
