[A-List] Peru melting down

[bon moun]

Peru Troops, Strikers Clash in State of Emergency
Wed May 28, 2003 08:13 PM ET

By Missy Ryan
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Soldiers fired into the air and police used tear
gas and water hoses in violent clashes across Peru on Wednesday with
protesters who vowed to continue crippling strikes despite a government
state of emergency.

Police said at least seven farmers were injured in Barranca, north of
Lima, as soldiers fired shots to disperse rock-throwing protesters a day
after unpopular President Alejandro Toledo imposed a 30-day emergency
banning strikers from the streets.

Police did not say how many people were arrested in the latest in a
series of widespread protests by Peruvians demanding better pay and
conditions.

In the northern city of Chiclayo, security forces fired tear gas and
arrested teachers, while shops in the jungle city of Huanuco were
shuttered to avoid looting. In Lima, police in riot gear turned water
hoses on protesting court workers at the national justice palace.

Health workers and farmers have, at least officially, temporarily called
off strikes that disrupted highway transport with blockades of rocks and
trees. But teachers, striking for more than two weeks demanding a rise
of 210 soles ($60) to an average monthly wage of 700 soles ($200), were
undeterred.

"The 100-sol ($29) raise they have offered us is insufficient ... so we
teachers have the right to keep expressing our unhappiness in the
streets," said Nilver Lopez, head of the SUTEP union that groups some
280,000 teachers.

Toledo's 2-year-old presidency has been marked by protests and a
declining approval rating that now stands at 14 percent.

"One thing is democracy and another thing is the understanding that
democracy means people can destroy the peace," Prime Minister Luis
Solari told RPP radio.

Many Peruvians complain Toledo -- a U.S.-trained former World Bank
adviser -- has failed to fulfill ambitious promises of jobs, prosperity
and a return to true democracy after the corrupt, hard-line rule of
ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

Protests intensified in recent weeks with farmers, teachers, health and
court workers pledging they would not give up on demands for wage rises
and greater job security.

SIGN OF 'GOVERNMENT DESPAIR'

On Wednesday, many schools appeared to remain empty despite a promise to
reopen. "This isn't democracy. They send out soldiers as soon as they
are unable to manage," said teacher Carmen Fajardo, 58, banging cymbals
at a Lima school.

Toledo last declared a state of emergency in June 2002. That measure was
limited to the city of Arequipa amid protests, which killed three
people, against the sale of two power firms.

Such decrees are not uncommon in Latin America, where governments
sometimes resort to military responses to protests against unpopular
policies.

Miguel Angel Bermudez, an analyst at private consultancy Maximixe in
Lima, said the measure was a sign "of urgency, of the government's
despair."

Peruvian stocks fell amid the political uncertainty while the sol
currency's value improved slightly in seesaw trade against the U.S.
dollar, traders said. In New York, the Peruvian share of the benchmark
JP Morgan Emerging Market Bond Index Plus fell.

Analysts said the emergency was unlikely to sully Peru's reputation as a
Latin American investment safe haven. Peru's economy grew by 5.2 percent
in 2002, fastest in the region.

(Additional reporting by Eduardo Orozco and Monica Vargas)



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