home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- WORLD, Page 35World NotesPERUOn Second Thought . . .
-
-
-
-
- After handily defeating celebrity novelist Mario Vargas
- Llosa in last week's presidential runoff, Alberto Fujimori made
- it clear that he has no intention of administering strong
- medicine to Peru's exhausted economy. The bespectacled former
- university professor reaffirmed his campaign promise that he
- would avoid "shock" therapy that might hurt the poor.
-
- Instead, Fujimori, 51, is visiting the U.S., Canada and
- Europe to seek aid for an economy that he acknowledges is
- "close to death," with an inflation rate of nearly 2,500% and
- a $17 billion foreign debt. Other nations have an incentive to
- help: some $600 million to $1.2 billion in coca leaves are
- exported from Peru each year, feeding the world's cocaine
- cartels. Fujimori cannot hope to combat the drug problem if
- Peru sinks into political and economic chaos. The U.S. Congress
- has approved $35.9 million to equip Peruvian soldiers to fight
- guerrillas and cocaine merchants. But Fujimori wants to
- renegotiate, saying that the U.S. should pay to build roads and
- provide assistance for alternate crops.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-