OAS Denounces Fujimori’s Power Grab : Peru: The Latin organization deplores the president’s actions but declines to impose economic sanctions.

The Organization of American States voted late Monday to deplore Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori’s seizure of power but stopped short of imposing economic sanctions.

The 32-0 vote, with Peru abstaining, came after Secretary of State James A. Baker III pledged that Western democracies will help Peru solve its severe economic problems if it restores the constitutional government but warned that the nation faces international isolation that will deepen its poverty if it does not.

In addition to denouncing Fujimori’s action, the OAS agreed to send a high-level delegation, headed by OAS Secretary General Joao Baena Soares and Paraguyan Foreign Minister Hector Gross Espiell, to Lima to try to persuade Fujimori to reverse course.

The OAS held its emergency meeting open until it receives the report of the delegation next month. If Fujimori refuses to budge, the organization could consider sanctions.

In his speech that preceded the vote, Baker expressed sympathy for Fujimori’s frustration in trying to combat poverty, terrorism and the drug trade. But he said the Peruvian president must be blocked in his attempt to “destroy democracy to save it.”

“The actions taken by President Fujimori, whatever the justification given, are unjustified,” Baker said. “They represent an assault on democracy.”

In Lima on Monday, members of Peru’s Congress conducted their second symbolic meeting--without interference from security forces who have surrounded the building since the legislative body was disbanded April 5.

Last week, a majority of the members, meeting in their homes, declared the national presidency vacant and elected Carlos Garcia Garcia, the second vice president, to replace Fujimori. On Monday, 143 of the Congress’ 240 members were listed as present, including five renegade members of Fujimori’s Change 90 party.

Asked if the Congress might negotiate a compromise with Fujimori, Senate President Felipe Osterling said, “There is no compromise with a dictatorship.”

U.S. officials said there is reason to hope that the OAS can persuade Fujimori to restore the constitutional government to spare his country additional international pressure.

A voluntary reversal would relieve the United States and the OAS of having to consider economic sanctions, a step that the Bush Administration is loath to take because it would shatter the country’s already fragile economy and probably play into the bloody hands of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) terrorists.

As if to underscore that concern, a van loaded with dynamite exploded near the main police station in Callao, the port of Lima, before dawn Monday, killing four people, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the bombing was believed to be the work of Sendero terrorists. If so, it was the third major terrorist attack in the Lima area since the crackdown.

The Bush Administration also is reluctant to disrupt Peru’s faltering anti-narcotics effort. The country produces about 60% of the world’s supply of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.

Times staff writer William R. Long in Lima contributed to this article.