Peruvian President Alan Garcia apologized to poor Peruvians for failing to improve their lives during his first year in office, and vowed renewed efforts against poverty.
Garcia, one of Washington's closest allies in Latin America, has presided over an economic boom driven by high world metal prices, but his popularity has slipped as the poor grow frustrated at being left out of the bonanza.
"I would have loved to do a lot more," Garcia said in his nationally broadcast state of the nation address to Congress, acknowledging that his government had not worked fast enough to help the poorest Peruvians.
"We apologize for this," Garcia said to thunderous applause.
He said increased public investment will "change the social face of Peru" by slashing the poverty rate to 30 percent from 44 percent now, and said the government would build housing for 1.2 million Peruvians by the time his term ends in 2011.
Garcia took office eager to redeem himself after a disastrous first government in the 1980s -- marked by radical populist rhetoric -- that left Peru mired in hyperinflation and nearly bankrupt.
Peru's economy grew 8 percent last year, the eighth consecutive year of expansion for the Andean nation of 27 million people, and Garcia has pushed forward with his market-friendly agenda.
But this month, peasant farmers, unionists and teachers took to the streets in sometimes violent demonstrations, blocking roads and closing airports to press for better distribution of wealth.
"In our situation of growth in the midst of great poverty, deep inequality and terrible distribution of wealth, a certain level of tension, protest and conflict is unavoidable," political analyst Gustavo Gorriti noted recently.
Resentment toward Garcia, 58, is most visible in rural highland regions such as Huancavelica, where nearly 90 percent are poor.
"They're not making us a priority," said Jorge Quinto Palomares, a regional government official. "The Huancavelica hospital is the only one in the region. The equipment is more than 50 years old."
The Indian and mestizo voters in the long-neglected highlands voted overwhelmingly for Garcia's populist opponent, Ollanta Humala, in a runoff in June last year.
Humala had promised radical redistribution of wealth, but Garcia deftly exploited voter fears about his opponent's ties with the current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez while casting himself as the region's market-friendly alternative to Chavez.
Peruvians cheered when Garcia slashed the salaries of officials, including his own. His predecessor Alejandro Toledo was often criticized for his extravagant lifestyle.
But Garcia's honeymoon is clearly over.
A recent poll by Apoyo, Peru's top pollster, showed Garcia's popularity had dropped to just 32 percent this month from 63 percent last August.
"Economic growth is necessary, but not enough [by itself] to reduce poverty and inequality," Peruvian economist Humberto Campodonico said. "That is what the protests of Peru's poor, above all in the southern highlands, remind us of every day."
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS