A Can Do Spirit in Peru

A former shoeshine boy who traces his ancestry to the Incas has been elected president of Peru, and the Western Hemisphere may have gained a measure of political and economic stability. May have.

President-elect Alejandro Toledo preaches “market economics with a human face,” and his credentials underscore that slogan. His soccer skills paved the way to Stanford, which later led to a doctorate that he parlayed into a job consulting for the World Bank. These strengths are mitigated, however, by Toledo’s inexperience in government and the intransigence of his nation’s problems.

There are encouraging signs. In the aftermath of the scandals that led to the ouster of former President Alberto Fujimori and his controversial spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru’s clean election sends the world a reassuring message. Now, the nation and its new president will need a few miracles. Peru is a poor country with few resources and weak civil institutions. Corruption during the Fujimori administration discredited the nation’s justice system, military and even the business class. It won’t be easy for the new president to re-establish the rule of law. To compensate for his inexperience, Toledo has recruited world-class economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to his Cabinet, and he is reportedly close to persuading former U.N. President Javier Perez de Cuellar to join his team. Having these two internationally respected Peruvians in the new government should guarantee a responsible foreign policy and the permanence of a free-market economy. It also should inspire trust abroad for the Toledo administration.

The new president’s two principal challenges are economic: creating more jobs for his people and continuing the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Peru needs investors for its mining industries and markets to which it can export agricultural products and textiles. The United States should review what it can do to help Peru increase its export capacity. The Bush administration should also consider Toledo’s request that the CIA help him locate Montesinos, with whom the agency enjoyed a cozy relationship in the not-so-distant past.

Already, Peru is fired up with pride. For the first time in 500 years, the millions of Peruvians who are of indigenous descent--about half the population of the country--have seen one of their own elected to the nation’s highest political office.

Toledo has proved that he can overcome adversity. Given time, Toledo may inspire a similar can-do attitude in the nation he now leads.