MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru's Garcia returns pledging to battle poverty

Sixteen years after ending his first term in economic chaos and political violence, Alan Garcia, 57, returned to the presidency of Peru on Friday July 28, pledging to battle poverty.

Garcia was inaugurated in the chamber of Congress to the applause of lawmakers, ministers, judges and more than two dozen foreign dignitaries, including eight Latin American presidents, Spain's Prince Felipe of Asturias and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

In his inaugural address Garcia said that in the first 17 months of his new administration he plans to spend 1.6 billion US dollars to build roads, schools and health clinics in rural areas where poverty is most severe. The program would be funded by loans from international lenders such as the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, voluntary contributions from mining companies and savings from austerity measures.

"We are here to serve the people," he said, drawing strong applause. "Millions of Peruvians are without jobs but they pay for our salaries."

Garcia said he was cutting the annual presidential salary to half and announced lowering the pay of 17,000 high-ranking officials. Other austerity measures include halving the Government Palace's 6 million US dollars annual budget and directing the savings to a rural irrigation project that Garcia said would benefit 15,000 people.

After defeating nationalist-populist Ollanta Humala in a June 4 runoff, Garcia pledged he would not repeat the errors of his first administration. However, polls show that more people are skeptical than hopeful about Garcia's new administration.

Garcia's disastrous 1985-1990 administration ended in hyperinflation (7.600%) and food shortages that left him reviled for years by most Peruvians. Plus the full impact of the Marxist inspired Shinning Path guerrilla movement that killed thousands of innocent Peruvians and unleashed unprecedented human rights abuses by insurgents and the military.

As a sign of his new beginning only six ministers out of fifteen belong to Garcia's APRA party, the oldest in Peru. In foreign policy Mr. Garcia has called for more trade and economic integration with Brazil and Chile, and reinforcing the Andean Community of Nations.

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe praised Garcia and forecasted he will accomplish "a good government", while Chile's Michelle Bachelet congratulated the Peruvians for their "democratic celebration" and said Chile was looking forward "to keep advancing and strengthening relations with Peru".

Other presidents included Brazil's Lula da Silva; Nicanor Duarte, Paraguay; Martin Torrijos, Panama; Antonio Saca, El Salvador; Evo Morales, Bolivia; Alfredo Palacio, Ecuador; Manuel Zelaya, Honduras; vice-presidents Daniel Scioli from Argentina and Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Uruguay.

Outgoing president Alejandro Toledo is widely viewed as having failed to fulfill his own promises to reduce poverty and was criticized for an extravagant lifestyle, including setting his salary, the highest of any Latinamerican president until forced to relinquish following massive protests.

Toledo, a Stanford University economics graduate and Peru's first democratically elected leader of Indian descent leaves behind solid economic growth, (6.5% last year), macroeconomic stability but poverty figures have barely budged with more than half of Peruvians surviving on less than 2 US dollars a day.

According to political analysts Carlos Reyna and Eduardo Toche president Garcia should not have much opposition in the short term since the business community and Conservatives prevail in the cabinet, while the grouping of populist-nationalist Ollanta Humala seems to be disappearing as an organized political force.

Garcia defeated Humala in the run off by 52.5% to 47.5%. Humala, a political outsider and former Army officer who led all presidential candidates in the first round of voting April 9, campaigned on promises to punish corrupt politicians, intervene in the free-market economy and radically redistribute the country's wealth. In Peru's impoverished countryside Quechua-speaking Indians and mestizos voted overwhelmingly for Humala.

Peru's population is 27 million, mostly of Indian descent and the national budget is nearly 16 billion US dollars.