A Struggle in Fujimori’s Wake

More than a month after then-President Alberto Fujimori fled Peru, plunging the nation into constitutional chaos, the new leaders are still struggling to restore order. They have launched ambitious reform efforts but have been stymied by the bureaucratic inertia that has plagued the government since long before Fujimori became president 10 years ago.

Last week, interim President Valentin Paniagua’s prime minister, Javier Perez de Cuellar, the highly respected former secretary-general of the United Nations, outlined to the Congress a government program to restore Peru to the path of democracy and establish a “new moral climate” in a country atrophied by corruption.

In unequivocal terms, Perez de Cuellar reaffirmed the government’s commitment to establish conditions for free and fair presidential elections April 8. The United Nations and the Organization of American States have been asked to help organize and monitor the process. Equally reassuring is the former U.N. leader’s appeal to the Peruvian Congress for a resolution returning the country to the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. After the court criticized his government in July 1999, Fujimori pulled the nation out, making Peru an outcast among Latin American democracies. Perez de Cuellar has also called on Congress to approve programs that would assist the judiciary in its investigations. One goal is the creation of a national commission to root out corruption.

No one symbolizes the rot of Fujimori’s reign more than former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos, now a fugitive. His case underlines the continued failure of the government to shake itself free of inefficiency.

More than a month ago, Swiss authorities announced they had frozen some accounts linked to money-laundering by Montesinos. These accounts could hold as much as $70 million, believed to be profits from arms dealing, drug trafficking and influence peddling. Although the Peruvian government has assigned a special state attorney to investigate the case, the government bureaucracy neglected to provide the funds needed to keep the office working properly. It took a month to obtain a mere $350 needed to translate the letters to the Swiss authorities seeking official information on the accounts.

Neglect like this would be laughable if the issues at hand were not so serious. If the new regime in Lima really wants to weed out the corrupt network created by Fujimori and Montesinos, it must give the special prosecutor’s office the requisite resources. Until it does, Peruvians cannot be blamed for wondering whether there is substance to their new government’s high-sounding rhetoric.