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- <text id=92TT0883>
- <title>
- Apr. 20, 1992: Fujimori Takes Over
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Apr. 20, 1992 Why Voters Don't Trust Clinton
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 29
- WORLD
- Fujimori Takes Over
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Frustrated, Peru's President shuts down Congress and rules by
- decree
- </p>
- <p> Relentless terrorism and economic disintegration dealt a
- mortal blow to Peru's fragile democracy. With military support,
- President Alberto Fujimori closed down Congress and the
- judiciary, suspended the constitution and said he would rule by
- decree. Troops and tanks surrounded the Palace of Justice and
- the parliament building; journalists and opposition politicians
- were placed under arrest.
- </p>
- <p> The only surprise for many observers was that it took so
- long for the putsch to come. Large tracts of Peruvian territory
- have been overrun by drug traffickers and vicious Shining Path
- guerrillas, whose terrorist campaign has reached the shantytowns
- around Lima, the nation's capital. Less than 20% of the work
- force is employed full time. More than half of Peru's 22 million
- people live in dismal poverty; a recent cholera epidemic killed
- more than 3,000.
- </p>
- <p> While some expressed sympathy for Fujimori's plight, the
- U.S. cut off all new nonhumanitarian aid, and the Organization
- of American States scheduled an emergency meeting to consider
- economic sanctions of the kind imposed on Haiti's dictatorship.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-