OAS is Complicit in the Dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori

Mario Vargas Llosa denounces the partiality ,br> of the OAS in the elections

Lima, June 21, 2000
(AFP The Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, accuses the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Cesar Gaviria, of being an accomplice in the dictatorship of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, by recognizing the legitimacy of the general elections that resulted in his re-election. In his turn, the leader of the opposition Alejandro Toledo, today affirmed that the OAS sought to turn the elections around and recognize the re-election of Fujimori, would do much damge to Peru."He recognizes that the legitimacy of the elections that his Observer Mission, presided over by the ex-chancellor of Guatemala Edward Stein, has placed in doubt," declared the novelistin an interview from London in the Lima daily, la Republica, one of the most important dailies of the Peruvian opposition.

Vargas Llosa affirmed that "Gaviria tried to minimize the conclusions of the Stein commission that clearly disqualified the elections, and withdrew the results.

The statements of the writer are in a response to an open letter that Gaviria published recently in the Spanish daily, El Pais, in which the Colombian leader "finished by asking that I not offer my political opinion. It seems that only the military and bureaucrats are able to offer political opinions and the common citizens are stopped from doing so." said Vargas Llosa. He adds that the letter "demonstrates the extraordinary ambiguity of people in his position, who assume a neutral facade, in the face of what is going on in Peru, which is that all the responsible democratic governments are doing, what very clearly indicates their partiality in favor of the dictatorship, with whom they are disgraced by their old complicit relationship.

Meanwhile, Toledo, in a local broadcast, Toledo called on all the democratic forces of the Andean countries to agree to recover institutional credibility by holding new elections before July 28 of this year.

The elections are the central issue and the foundation, on this point there exists a consensus of the Peruvian opposition. ,p> It indicates that at the meeting with the Mission advanced by the OAS, "they have put their cards on the table." The official statement twisted the information about the electoral mission of the OAS, that found the Peruvian election process comprised., he said.,p> At the meetings of the OAS delegation, besides Toledo, were various directors of the Aprista Peruanno, Accion Popular and Union Por el Peru, among others.

"This has been the first meeting where democratic forces have expressed their opinion and raised the necessity of calling new elections, free, clean and supervised by the OAS, in order to restore the credibility of Peru, said Toledo.

Nevertheless 49% of Peruvians consider it improbable that Fujimori will be obliged to give up the Presidency before 2005, while 39% do not discount the possibility, according to an questionnaire published in the Daily, El Comercio.

According to the director of "Support", Alfredo Torres, the the actual state of public opinion, according to the questionnaire, is "of the discredit of the political system and of disillusion about the likelihood of change.