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Toledo faces troubled nation
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PERU'S president-elect was swept to power largely by the poor, Indian majority. Now Alejandro Toledo faces the daunting task of not letting them down in one of South America's most troubled nations.
The self-styled ``Indian with a cause'' must battle a four-year recession, deliver jobs and higher wages in a nation mired in poverty, and root out the remnants of corruption left by a previous government.
Toledo, 55, became Peru's first freely elected president of Indian descent on Sunday when he defeated former President Alan Garcia in an election international observers described as a model for the region. With 89 per cent of the vote counted Monday, Toledo had 52 per cent compared to Garcia's 48 per cent.
“In Peru there exists profound racism under the surface,” Toledo said on cable news station Canal N, his first interview since his victory. “For many it is difficult to accept the possibility, now consummated, that a person of my ethnic extraction and background could be president of Peru.”
He said that within 100 days of taking office, he would implement, ``an aggressive program to reactivate the productive capacity of the economy.''
He also indicated that he would name his Cabinet within two weeks. Toledo said he had tried unsuccessfully to persuade former congresswoman Lourdes Flores, a campaign rival, to be his prime minister, but that he would continue trying.
Flores ended up third in an April 8 first round election after a racially divisive campaign in which Toledo played on historic resentment toward Peru's white elite by Peru's poor Indian and mixed-race majority.
Toledo, who takes office on July 28, has a history of overcoming adversity.
In an odd pairing, his win was welcomed both by the nation's Indians and international investors who remember Garcia's economically disastrous 1985-90 administration. Garcia had refused to fully pay Peru's foreign debt, tried to nationalize Peru's banks and left office with annual inflation topping 3,000 percent and the nation's coffers empty.
Investor reaction to Toledo's win was immediate. The value of a key Brady bond increased 7.2 per cent in early trading Monday - the biggest gain in at least two years.
In his victory speech, Toledo said he would strive to create jobs and reduce the poverty that afflicts more than half of Peru's 26 million people while meeting the obligations on the country's $19.2 billion foreign debt.
“We imagine that foreign investors are definitely going to give Toledo the benefit of the doubt,”said Federico Kaune, a Peruvian-born analyst with Goldman Sachs in New York.
Eduardo Stein, leader of the observer delegation for the Organization of American States, praised the election.
“I think the rest of Latin America will have to examine and study carefully these Peruvian paths to solve political crisis without confrontation or firing a shot,” he said.
But Stein added that Toledo will have to “start delivering immediately” on campaign promises to jump-start Peru's economy.
“I think he is going to have a heap of problems in securing the necessary resources to do that,” Stein said. “I think this new elected government will not enjoy the traditional three- or four-month honeymoon that every electorate grants a new administration.”
Peru's Indian and mixed-race population makes up 80 per cent of its population, and partial results showed the heavily Indian highlands voting largely for Toledo, while Garcia took coastal areas dominated by descendants of the Spanish conquistadors.
Toledo's victory comes a year after the fraud-filled election that delivered a short-lived third term to former President Alberto Fujimori.
Toledo withdrew from the presidential runoff in May of last year, accusing Fujimori of planning to rig the results.
He emerged as the country's most staunch opposition leader against Fujimori, whose 10-year regime collapsed in November amid mounting corruption scandals surrounding Peru's fugitive intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
Few question Toledo's tenacity and bravery after his gutsy role leading massive street protests to unseat Fujimori.
But some wonder if Toledo has the cool head and stable character needed to fulfill a mandate to reactivate Peru's stagnant economy and restore faith in its fragile democracy.
According to Alejandro Toledo, despite the fact he's fled the country, Vladimiro Montesinos is still a powerful force in Peru. "I think he still influences the military and the judiciary. There are still dark forces at work. He must be found, and tried", says Mr Toledo.
Toledo must also stitch together a majority in Peru's historically fractured Congress, which Fujimori and Montesinos maintained through bribes and coercion.
Toledo's Peru Possible party - which incorporates a broad range of political views - won only 45 of 120 legislative seats in April's general elections.
Garcia, in his concession speech Sunday, pledged his support for Toledo and said he would ask the 28 Congress members from his left-leaning Aprista party to support the new government. Toledo said he was considering giving Garcia a post in his government.(SD-Agencies)
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