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NEWS & LETTERS, July 2002
Mass protests against privatization, broken promises in PeruPeru’s shoeshine boy-turned-president, the “man of
the poor,” Alejandro Toledo, imposed a state of emergency on the southern
region of Arequipa on June 16, suspending all constitutional rights. The action
was taken on the fourth consecutive day of protests in the city of Arequipa, and
a day after two people were killed, one of them a 23-year-old university student
shot in the head by the police with a tear gas canister. Several hundred were
injured. The protests were called to stop the sale of Egasa and
Egesur, two electrical companies “auctioned off” to the sole bidder
Tractebel, a Belgian firm (itself controlled by a French company, Suez) for $167
million on June 14. Peruvians are familiar with the crisis last year in
neighboring Bolivia after water rights were sold off to foreigners, and the
demise of Argentina’s economy following a decade of privatizations. Toledo was elected last July because he promised
Peru’s poor that these two electrical firms would not be sold. Now he calls
his policy “privatization with a human face.” The current revolt started on June 11–12 when the
central province of Pasco struck for 48 hours to protest the sale. An estimated
85% of the population there participated. On June 13, a 24-hour strike took
place in four other provinces including Arequipa. Also that day a large
solidarity march took place in the capital, Lima. Arequipa, the country’s second largest city and the
location of Egasa and Egesur, has been the center of the rebellion. Marches on
June 13 and 14 were originally peaceful. But despite being organized by the
city’s mayor, Juan Manuel Guillen (until recently a firm supporter of Toledo),
they were tear gassed and attacked by the police. Marchers fought back,
destroyed government buildings, and still more people joined: workers,
campesinos, students. The state of emergency was declared on June 16 and the
revolt spread the following day to the city of Tacna, at the very southern tip
of Peru, where several hundred were arrested and businesses were looted during a
general strike. Large marches in solidarity with Arequipa took place in Cusco,
Iquitos, and other cities, effectively spreading the rebellion throughout the
country. Toledo’s government looked as if it might be heading
for collapse. His interior minister resigned and some legislators called for all
of his cabinet to step down. Toledo sent a group headed by Arequipa’s
Archbishop to work out a compromise, but they arrived on June 18 huddling on the
floor of their bus under a hail of rocks thrown by protestors. The next day they
were able to work out a deal, “postponing” the privatization, and the same
day the state of emergency was lifted. Toledo seems to have slithered out of this crisis, but
only by making an even firmer commitment to further privatizations. He got his
cabinet members to stand in front of the media in a big hug, all wrapped in the
flag (literally), and said to the country: “We’re firm in our commitment to
privatizations because we’re a country open to dialogue.” So with those
bizarre words Peru has joined the ranks of the battle against global capital. —Mitch Weerth |
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