From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Peru News Update 1/3/93
Date: 4 Jan 93 22:23:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:aaBVwB21w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-364586225:000:4820
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Jan  4 14:23:00 1993


Subject: Peru News Update 1/3/93
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

excerpted from...

         Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

             Weekly News Update #153, January 3, 1993


PERUVIAN PRESIDENT DISMISSES DIPLOMATS

On  Nov. 30, Peru's official newspaper La Gaceta reported that
the Peruvian government dismissed 117 diplomatic personnel,
including 23 ministers, 15 ministerial advisers and 41
secretaries--about a quarter of the foreign ministry. In
addition, a new executive decree limits diplomats' terms to five
years, establishes the president as the director of foreign
relations and allows him to designate ambassadors from outside
the diplomatic service. The decree is the last of a series done
in a hurry by the government in the past few days, since as of
Dec. 30 only the Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), and not
the president, will be able to issue laws. The CCD plans to
examine all executive decrees issued since Apr. 5, when President
Alberto Fujimori dissolved the parliament and assumed all powers.
[ED-LP 12/31/92 from EFE and DLA 1/1/93 AFP] The CCD was
inaugurated on Dec. 30, eight months and 25 days after Fujimori
dissolved the old legislature. Fujimori was not present at the
ceremony, which was attended by the CCD's 80 elected members. [LJ
12/31/92 from AFP]
 

MORE BOMBS EXPLODE IN PERU

On Dec. 26 in Lima, Peru, a car-bomb exploded near the embassies
of Costa Rica and Austria. The next day another exploded in a
commercial sector of the city of Huachaco, and two more car-bombs
exploded in Lima near the embassies of China and Japan on Dec.
28. There were some injuries and damages. An anonymous police
spokesperson blamed the Maoist rebels known as Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path) for the bombings. [ED-LP 12/29/92 from AP] But
Peruvian Interior Minister Gen. Juan Briones said that an unknown
group--not Sendero Luminoso--is responsible for the bombings. He
added that there would be an official communique about the
incidents soon. Briones also said that the terrorist attacks were
aimed at damaging Peru's image abroad. [IPS 12/28/92]
 
Also on Dec. 26, in several poor neighborhoods of Lima about
twenty dogs carrying dynamite charges were tied to lampposts and
bridges and blown up. In pamphlets, Sendero Luminoso calls
popular leaders who oppose the armed struggle "dogs"; the
Peruvian police said the "dog-bombs" are a new threat against
those leaders. Another dog was found dead in Surquillo
neighborhood, along with a placard denouncing the current Chinese
government as revisionist. [LJ 12/27/92 from EFE, AFP, Reuter,
ANSA and DPA]
 
Meanwhile, a Chinese government-owned iron and steel company
outbid a Japanese-Mexican-Chilean consortium and bought Peru's
state-owned iron company, Hierroperu, for $312 million. With this
move China became the second-largest foreign investor in Peru,
after a US company, the Southern Peru Copper Corporation. The
Chinese will have to contend with Sendero Luminoso, which accuses
China of abandoning the ideals of Mao. [NYT 12/31/92]
 

PERU: UNION ACCUSES GOVERNMENT OF KILLING LABOR LEADER

The Peruvian General Confederation of Workers (CGTP) accused the
Peruvian Government of the Dec. 18 murder of CGTP Secretary
General Pedro Huilca Tecse. The CGTP also asked for an
independent commission to investigate the murder, noting that the
murders of two other members under similar circumstances were
never investigated. The CGTP's accusations were backed by other
unions as well as political parties including the Marxist,
Socialist and Social Democratic parties. Exiled former president
Alan Garcia accused President Fujimori and his advisor Vladimir
Montesinos of being the intellectual authors of the crime. So far
only Fujimori and Interior Minister Juan Briones have accused
Sendero Luminoso of the murder. [LJ 12/20/92 from AFP, EFE, DPA,
ANSA, Notimex and Reuter]


                               -30-

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