From Granma

THE effect of neoliberal policies in Peru, promoted by an economy alien to the real needs of its citizens, has provoked recurrent political and social crises in this nation. In the last three years, Alejandro Toledo’s government has been repeatedly shaken by major popular protests and demands from different sectors.

One of the most remarkable demonstrations occurred on June 2002, when the government attempted to privatize two electrical companies belonging to the emblematic Arequipa, or Ciudad Blanca in southern Peru, famous for its ancestral indigenous culture.

These privatizations were in blatant contradiction to the electoral promises made by the leader of Perú Posible, and which afforded him the support of many enthusiastic voters (59%) for the 2001-2006 presidential period.

Violent protests forced him to give up those plans, but not before declaring a state of emergency, imposing a curfew and mobilizing troops. One year later, a similar situation occurred when workers demanded more jobs and a decorous standard of living.

Before the General Federation of Peruvian Workers could launch its proposal for a new labor bill in March 2003, police repression had claimed at least 10 deaths, 80 injured and 320 arrests.

Last year, the nation’s doctors and teachers repeatedly demanded higher salaries, and the agricultural sector called on the government not to go into the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), fearing a repeat of the negative experiences Mexican farmers are facing.

2005 began with the storming of a military garrison in Andahuaylas (January 2-5), a warning from Antauro Humala, retired army major and brother of Colonel Ollanta Humala, whom Toledo appointed assistant military attaché in Paris in 2003 before retiring him.

The Humala brothers belong to the Nationalist Ethnocentric Movement (which led an rebellion against the military supporters of Vladimir Montesinos in 2000), whose demands focus on indigenous issues, the interests of reservists and lower-ranking officers, and which is opposed to Toledo’s policies regarding natural resources and investment.

POPULARITY PLUNGES

At this stage of his mandate, the Peruvian president has only 9% support. Several polls have measured how people perceive the development of his administration, throwing up steadily lower levels as time passes.

However, as if by the art of magic, Toledo is still leading the country. Several experts, consulted by Granma International, maintain that this phenomenon resides in the very difficulties of governing a country that has deteriorated economically and socially to such an extent. As a result, Toledo keeps changing cabinets without any serious opposition movement capable of proposing a coherent plan, and the people are expressing their frustrations on the streets with demands for a constituent assembly to defend their interests and act against corruption.

Hugo Blanco, a historical leader of the Peruvian Farmers Federation, agrarian movements in the Convención valley and a member of the Workers, Farmers and Students Popular Front (FOCEP), understands that his country is on the verge of inevitable social collapse, the product of a deep discontent.

Peruvian analyst José Ríos agrees with that opinion and is questioning the 'success' of Toledo’s economic policies.' Taking rising oil prices as a reference – a 12.5% increase in 2003 – which, in his view, unleashed a 'chain increase in the price of items of basic need, which is all that the population can barely afford. Hikes of 20%, 30% and even 40% are really disastrous for the subsistence economy of in which the large national majorities are living. This proves the inapplicability of the recipes of the well-remunerated public and private bureaucrats of neoliberalism.'

STUNNING PANORAMA

Other statistics apart from the total of 14 million poor in a country of 27 million Peruvians speak for themselves of the national chaos. The National Housing Survey on Housing on living conditions and poverty carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics reveals that 54.8% of the population are living in poverty and 24.4% in extreme poverty.

There is no electricity in 84% of the indigenous communities, 49% of rural homes have earth floors, only 55% of the population have access to street lighting and 38% lack sanitation in their homes.

That rosary is compounded by an external debt of more than $27 billion, and the interest on that debt amounts to a quarter of the national budget.