From: mrojas@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: Lates news from Peru
Organization: Clark University
Date: 6 APR 92 19:03:53 GMT

HUBERT CAM Fujimori dissolves Congress, assumes dictatorial
powers 


LIMA, Peru (UPI) -- President Alberto Fujimori suspended the
Constitution Sunday night, dissolved Congress and put its leaders
under house arrest, saying he wanted to reform a corrupt
judiciary and do- nothing legislature. Opposition leaders called
the move a ``coup d'etat.'' 

Tanks rumbled through the streets of Lima and surrounded the
congressional building and Supreme Court, while truckloads of
soldiers unloaded and took up guard positions at communications
facilities. Local press censorship was imposed. 

Opposition legislators said the president had committed a
``historic error'' in suspending the constitution of the South
American nation battered by a leftist insurgency, bankruptcy and
unchecked drug trafficking. 

In a surprise 20-minute broadcast on radio and television at 11
p.m., Fujimori told the nation he had temporarily dissolved the
Congress, suspended the constitution and would restructure the
judicial branch. 

Fujimori also said he would call a plebiscite on an unspecified
date to authorize a package of constitutional reforms, while his
council of ministers would assume legislative powers temporarily.
This meant in essence the president would rule by decree. 
As head of the armed forces and police, Fujimori said he had
ordered the military and law enforcement officers to maintain
order. 

The president called legislators ``lazy'' and said they had
blocked his plans since assuming office 20 months ago to lift the
country out of bankruptcy, and he specifically accused them of
showing weakness by failing to pass laws punishing the laundering
of drug money, lifting bank secrecy and cracking down on corrupt
officials. 

Soldiers put opposition politicians, including former President
Alan Garcia, under house arrest and censored the media following
the president's announcement. 

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Ramirez del
Villar, said before he was arrested Sunday that the president's
move constituted ``a coup d'etat. It is outside of Peruvian law.
.. He has assumed dictatorial powers,'' Ramirez de Villar said
by telephone. 

Military officials were sent to approve the content of newspapers
about to go to print and one radio station was closed by soldiers
for violating the censorship laws. In Washington, White House
spokesman Gary Foster said President Bush was watching the
developments in Peru ``very closely. We are in contact with
(Fujimori's) people.'' 

The declaration of emergency powers of the type assumed by
Fujimori is not spelled out in the Peruvian constitution.
Political observers said President Jose de Bustamante took
similar dictatorial steps in 1948, before he was later felled by
a coup himself. 

In Latin America, such a move by the president is often called an
``auto-coup,'' meaning the president arranges his own power grab
to shore up his position. In recent decades, the classic
``auto-coup'' was that of Juan Maria Bordaberry in Uruguay in
1973. 

Two years after he assumed the dictatorial powers, Bordaberry was
himself ousted in a military coup. Peru has been rocked in recent
years by escalating attacks by the far-left guerrilla movement
Shining Path and the less powerful Tupac Amaru revolutionary
organization. It also is struggling to overcome an economic
crisis and to curb the pervasive, illegal cocaine trade. 

The president of the Senate, Felipe Osterling, said Fujimori has
``committed a historic error, and he has shown it was an error to
have elected him.'' 

Both Osterling and Ramirez del Villar belong to the opposition
Social Christian Party. Fujimori formed his own party, Change
'90, for the purpose of his 1990 presidential campaign.  


Aronson arrived in Peru just prior to crisis 
Date: 6 Apr 92 10:30:55 GMT    Lines: 23    Location: peru       


LIMA, Peru (UPI) -- Assistant Secretary of State for
Inter-American    Affairs Bernard Aronson arrived in Lima almost
simultaneously with the    announcement by President Alberto
Fujimori that he had assumed    dictatorial powers, according
airport sources.    

Peruvian radio stations and a television station widely
publicized    the visit early Monday, hours after Fujimori
dissolved congress and    began to rule by decree with armed
forces backing.    

A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy said that only the Peruvian  
 government can make a statement with respect to Aronson's
reported    arrival.    

The Peruvian government closed a radio station after it broadcast 
  remarks by former Ambassador to Argentina Alfonso Grados, who
said ``I    hope Mr. Aronson is not going to suppport all this
(the dissolution of    congress.''    

``It is surprising he came without a prior announcement. I hope
the    United States is not involved in this.''    
The television station Panamericana Television broke the news of 

Aronson's arrival two hours after Fujimori assumed exceptional
powers at    11 p.m. Sunday.  The station said the envoy came for
a two-day visit to hold talks    with Fujimori on economic aid,
the drug trade, and revolutionary    insurgency.