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OAS Defeats U.S. Attempt to Impose Sanctions on Peru June 7, 2000 The Organization of American States (OAS) recently defeated a U.S. State Department attempt to impose sanctions on Peru due to purported irregularities in Peru's May 28 presidential elections which gave incumbent President Alberto Fujimori a third 5-year term. Madeleine Albright had hoped to persuade the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the OAS, held in Windsor, Ontario on June 4-6, to vote for imposing "limited sovereignty" and harsh sanctions on Peru. But after the May 31 special session of the OAS's Permanent Council in Washington, in which Latin American governments, led by Brazil, firmly repudiated the State Department, Albright had to settle for a compromise resolution, proposed by Canada, to send an OAS delegation to Peru to explore ways to strengthen democracy. Only Costa Rica supported a State Department proposal for multi-lateral sanctions against Peru. The State Department insisted that the May 28 elections, which gave Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori a third 5-year term, were invalid. The opposition candidate, Alejandro Toledo, supported by Peru's narcotics growers, claimed that the elections were rigged and withdrew from the election after realizing that he was trailing in the polls. The OAS mission, to consist of OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria and Canada's General Assembly president Lloyd Axworthy, will arrive in Peru sometime before President Fujimori's July 28 inauguration. The OAS defeat does not mean that the Clinton-Gore administration has abandoned their attempts to overthrow Fujimori or destabilize the country. Speaking at Windsor, Thomas Pickering, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, warned that should Peru to fail to implement substantive reforms, the U.S. reserved the right to act unilaterally against it. Fujimori, popular for defeating communist terrorists and stabilizing the economy, has said the vote was fair and transparent. He won 51.20 percent against 17.68 percent for Toledo. Spoiled ballots accounted for 29.93 percent of the vote, apparently reflecting Toledo's call for his supporters to void their ballots. However, Toledo's allegations of fraud sparked protests and cries of foul from both Peruvians and the international community. Following the election, Toledo appealed to the Peruvian Congress and military for a recount and has traveled to Europe to seek international support. During the meeting of OAS foreign ministers in Windsor, the U.S. threat to use sanctions provoked leaders of the five-nation Andean Community -- Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela -- to rally against imperialism, and specifically against U.S. intervention in the group nation's domestic affairs. Toledo furthermore fared poorly in gaining advocates in the European Union and Spain. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on June 5 cautioned Toledo against contributing to civil disturbances and to choose dialogue instead. Toledo's meetings in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana proved equally unproductive. Toledo, a former shoeshine boy turned World Bank economist, was virtually an unknown -- inside and outside Peru -- only six weeks before the election. However, the opposition candidate gained wide support among Shining Path sympathizers, communists, and the narcotics industry. In primary elections in early May, Toledo won just 40.3 percent compared to Fujimori's 49.8 percent of the vote. But Fujimori's vote was shy of the 50 percent required for victory, requiring the May 28th run-off. Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was an unknown economist when he won the presidency in 1990 with an unexpected victory over famed novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. He inherited a nation experiencing a severe economic crisis and facing one of Latin America's most brutal narco-terrorist insurgencies, the Shining Path communists. He destroyed Shining Path in 1992 with the capture of Shining Path founder and terrorist leader Abimael Guzman. And he seemed to pull off the impossible in 1997 with the daring rescue of 72 hostages held by communist terrorists at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima. He succeeded in reining in hyperinflation, reforming a wrecked economy, and slashing Peru's cocaine production by a stunning 66 percent. The Clinton-Gore administration's calls of sanctions against Peru were ironic in view President Clinton's intensive, personal effort to persuade Congress to grant permanent normal trade relations to Red China, ruled by communist dictators since 1948. The administration has also provided billions of dollars in annual aid to Egypt, ruled by dictator Hosni Mubarak since 1981. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who led efforts to impose sanctions on Peru, personally attended the funeral of long-time Syrian dictator Hafez Assad on June 13th. The dead Syrian dictator had brutally ruled Syria for 30 years. In addition to invading and annexing Lebanon in 1976, he sponsored the terrorist attack that resulted in the murder of 287 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1984 and ordered the kidnapping and murder of U.S. marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in 1988. Albright's State Department has repeatedly named Syria repeatedly as a leading state sponsor of terrorism. Peru, a peaceful country that has been America's greatest ally in the war on drugs, apparently does not rate the same consideration as communist and Moslem dictatorships, and hence is threatened with sanctions due to election irregularities. However, this time at least, the world community did not support Clinton-Gore administration's policy of punishing small countries for minor infractions while coddling America's enemies.
© 2000 TruthNews. All Rights Reserved. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
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