DATE=12/27/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PERU / FUJIMORI (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257549
BYLINE=SHARON STEVENSON
DATELINE=LIMA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori says he is
running for a third term in office next year, despite
criticism from legal experts who say such a move
violates the country's constitution. Sharon Stevenson
has details from Lima.
TEXT: The president announced his candidacy on state-
owned television, with the announcement broadcast
simultaneously on all of Peru's major t-v networks.
Mr. Fujimori says his choice for first vice-president
is Francisco Tudela, a former Peruvian foreign
minister, now ambassador to the United Nations.
// OPT // Mr. Tudela resigned his cabinet post in
protest two years ago, after officials revoked the
Peruvian citizenship of an Israeli-born television
station owner and stripped his broadcasting license.
Baruch Ivcher's (Frecuencia Latina) station had
reported details of a wide-ranging wiretapping
campaign aimed at Mr. Fujimori's opponents, as well as
torture and murder plots by Peruvian intelligence
services. // END OPT //
Mr. Tudela is seen as a candidate who could help
repair the Fujimori government's increasingly
authoritarian image.
President Fujimori says his government has suppressed
two guerrilla movements and improved the national
infrastructure and educational system. He justified
his bid for a third term with a warning that
opposition parties would destroy the progress Peru has
made during his 10 years in office.
/// FUJIMORI SPANISH ACT - ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///
Calling his political foes a "rag-tag" group, Mr.
Fujimori says the opposition has dedicated itself for
the past two years to attacking him -- what he calls
"a kind of dumping on Fujimori."
The question of whether a third-term presidential
candidacy would be legal has been a running
controversy for years. In 1996, Peru's Congress,
dominated by Mr. Fujimori's party, ousted three
constitutional tribunal judges who had ruled against
the president's bid to seek a third term.
// OPT // The judges ruled a third presidential term
would be illegal under Peru's constitution, which was
enacted a year after the president's "self-coup" in
192 - a period during which Mr. Fujimori presided over
a virtual dictatorship for eight months. Ironically, a
video dating back to 1995 recently surfaced, in which
the president himself declared that the constitution
barred him from a third-term. // END OPT //
A number of organizations and individuals have
declared their opposition to Mr. Fujimori's plans,
including the Peruvian Bar [association of lawyers],
human-rights organizations and Lima's Catholic
cardinal.
Diego Garcia-Sayan, head of the Andean Commission of
Jurists, warned that a third-term candidacy could have
ominous consequences.
/// GARCIA-SAYAN SPANISH ACT - IN AND UNDER ///
"When a government assumes power in violation of the
constitution," Mr. Garcia-Sayan says, "there are
options that the constitution itself confers" to
citizens, including "the right of insurgency."
The Peruvian opposition plans to try to remove Mr.
Fujimori from the ballot before the election next
April. However, since 1995, the executive has slowly
gained influence over the National Electoral Board,
the body that would decide whether the president's
candidacy is illegal. (Signed)
NEB/SS/WTW
27-Dec-1999 21:41 PM EDT (28-Dec-1999 0241 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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