Suggested Link | To South America - and when Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez entitled one of his novels 'The General In His Labyrinth' the Colombian master writer put a frame on a powerful image in his part of the world. |
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| It summed up the essence of perceptions about Latin American politics. The man in uniform, seen hazily through smoke and mirrors, directing brutal business from his bunker, and above all else, priming his power. |
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| So many South American nations have been blighted by soldiers turned supremos. In Peru though, they're enduring a strange and sinister hybrid, a civilian leader just as malevolent and authoritarian as any hard brass to march into power. |
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| Peru is supposed to be a democracy yet it's fallen into the unrelenting grip of one... as people power and its democracy champion flickers weak under his heavy hand. |
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Military on parade | Byrne: It's a tarnished victory for Peru's strongman, Alberto Fujimori. He may have won the election, but he's lost the respect of his people. And those who oppose him are paying the price - in blood and tears. | 02:00 |
Elian | Elian: I think there is going to be a lot of repression. When you show this I hope I'm still alive. | 02:26 |
Riots/teargas | Byrne: In an unstable continent, Peru has become a wild card. The democracy that isn't. | 02:32 |
Map | Music | 02:41 |
Machu Pichu/Statue of Pachacutec | Byrne: It was Peru's moment of greatness. The mighty sun-worshipping empire of the Incas. The man who built that empire - the Inca Pachacutec - is the ultimate local hero whose name means, literally, the one who changed everything. Who turned the world upside down. Now more than five hundred years on, | 02:57 |
Byrne to camera | some say, and some are being encouraged to believe, that the spirit of Pachacutec has returned to Peru, and that this man too will change everything. This man who is native to the Andes will restore opportunity and self respect and honest government. This man is Alejandro Toledo. | 03:22 |
Toledo with supporters | Alejandro Toledo was not Peru's only opposition candidate but, after a bruising election campaign, he was the last man standing against the forces of Fujimori. High in the Andes, in Cuzco, the capital of the old Inca empire, he is the focus for all their hopes. | 03:43 |
Toledo supporter | Man 1: We want to return dignity to the Peruvian people. We want to contribute to the recovery of dignity. Man 2: I want to support democracy. Without democracy there is no work - no freedom of expression. | 04:13 |
Toledo with supporters | Byrne: Toledo is known as 'el cholo' the mixed-blood - the shoe shine boy from the slums who rose to become a Harvard Professor. The first president, he tells his supporters, who will look like they do. | 04:33 |
Woman | Woman: He was born cholo - Indian, like us. Poor. So we're going to walk together to the end. He has given his life to this country -- we are going to do the same. | 04:50 |
Toledo with supporters | Toledo: Destiny has placed me in the role of leading the democratic forces and the civil society for the purpose of returning democracy, freedom, to my country. | 05:09 |
Toledo interview | This is a responsibility to which I will not betray, no matter what. | 05:23 |
Fujimori at road works | Byrne: When Foreign Correspondent last visited Peru two years ago, President Fujimori was eager to use the occasion to promote his good works for the people of Peru. | 05:33 |
| In the midst of adversity with El Nino wreaking havoc, the President saw himself as a saviour - a hands on president who could and would lead his people through tribulation to the promised land. |
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Fujimori Super: Alberto Fujimori President, Peru | Fujimori: We have a complete peaceful country - with a good prospect - a lot of investment, stability. | 05:59 |
Guzman in cage | Byrne: After all, he had successfully waged war against the notorious and brutal guerillas of the Shining Path. Their leader Abimael Guzman, he captured and displayed in a cage before imprisoning him. And with the help of the shadowy but all powerful head of secret police, Vladimiro Montesinos, he brought a successful end to the long running siege of the Japanese Embassy. | 06:09 |
Fujimori | Fujimori: Now we have restored the authority and the order. | 06:34 |
Coup footage | FX: Gunshots Byrne: To achieve his ends Alberto Fujimori in 1992 had staged a military coup - the self- coup. This corruption of democratic freedoms was necessary, he said, to ensure the stability of the country. | 06:40 |
Conseco gets into car | Independent congressman like Xavier Diez Conseco were to feel the subtle brunt of Peru's new style of government. | 07:03 |
| Conseco: In November 1990 my house was dynamited with my children and my wife inside. Then, I lost my car. They shot my car. After that, my kids, they tried to kidnap them. |
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Conseco interview Super: Javier Diez Conseco Congressman | This is a Mafia government - if you want to deal with this in one name - a Mafia government. | 07:28 |
Fujimori in helicopter | FX: Helicopter | 07:38 |
| Byrne: Fujimori claimed the end justified his brutal means. And then - for the good of the country - changed the constitution to allow himself to stand again for the presidency. |
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Religious parade | FX: Brass band | 07:53 |
| Byrne: The election he staged this April looked like the real thing. Like any good ceremony whether religious or political, it worked as theatre, providing a lively show for the people. But international monitors quickly denounced the vote as a fraud, verging on a farce. |
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Rafael interview | Rafael: The fact is we had one million and a half more votes than voters. | 08:27 |
| Byrne: Rafael Roncagliolo, from the monitoring group, Transparencia. |
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| Rafael: Toledo was at the last of the ballot and in some places the bottom of the ballot was cut off. |
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| Byrne: Another method I hear is that they put wax next to the names so you couldn't write. Rafael: Yes. Byrne: Is that right. Rafael: Yeah, it's true, it's true, it's true. |
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Religious parade | FX: Brass band | 08:55 |
| Byrne: Members of the government deny fraud. They concede the election had some irregularities, but the world's not perfect. |
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Chavez interview Super: Martha Chavez Government MP | Chavez: No I don't accept there has been any fraud. I think that in any process all around the world there should be problems. There have been problems. | 09:09 |
| Byrne: So the stories about the ballot papers being waxed or the ballot papers cut off ... Chavez: No, this is not true. That's not true. That's all it was said also in 1995, and if you look in newspaper all the time we have elections we should find it is part of the political culture to talk about fraud. Byrne: Maybe it is part of your political culture that there is fraud? Chavez: No, no there is not. |
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Army | Byrne: With all the weapons of state at his fingertips - including the army - Mr Fujimori has always managed to suppress dissent. | 09:47 |
| But this time, in Alejandro Toledo, he has a genuine opponent who is not prepared to lie down, or be intimidated. |
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Toledo | Toledo: They have caused, threatened my life 126 times. They threaten my wife, they threaten my daughter. | 10:07 |
| Byrne: Do you see it's hard for someone who doesn't see the guns, they don't see the tanks in the street, to believe it is a dictatorship? Toledo: It is not very fashionable now to have a clean-cut dictatorship with two or three generals. Pinochets in today's world will not be very fashionable, will not be very believable. You have here new style in which they captured through blackmail, through intelligence service, a gestapo. Captured institutions and they use it to their own service to get re-elected. |
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Toledo at computer | Byrne: Having lost the election, Alejandro Toledo is now fighting back with the only weapon he has - public opinion. | 10:56 |
| Toledo: I invite all Peruvians from all quarters... all of you who are in Lima... I invite you personally... |
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| Byrne: He is staging a series of there marches, calling on supporters from the four corners of Peru - what the Incas used to call the cuatro suyos -- to descend upon Lima in massive numbers. The demonstrations will culminate on Peru's Day of Independence, the day of Fujimori's inauguration. But it will not be easy. |
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Toledo on bus/police | Toledo: We have in this bus, in this bus in which we are now travelling, we have people from the intelligence service, in this bus, right now. | 11:48 |
| Byrne: It's a high risk strategy, and Fujimori's forces are already mobilising to block the marches. |
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Fernando interview Super: Fernando Youera Toledo Press Secretary | Fernando: They are using the book on traffic regulations that have never been used in this country before. They are trying to enforce the law to deliver so to stop some of the marchers and their goal to reach the capital in Lima, and to be part of the rest of the demonstrations there. | 12:06 |
Marchers descend on Lima | Byrne: Yet still they come - by bus and boat, on foot, from the jungles and valleys and high mountain villages. They stream into the capital, night and day. The police, too, have taken up positions. | 12:28 |
| It will fall, it will fall, they sing. The dictatorship will fall. |
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Fernando | Fernando: We are right now equipping ourselves with surplus, military surplus gasmasks. | 13:12 |
| Byrne: Though Toledo insists it will be a peaceful march - his people are preparing for the worst. |
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Fernando with tear gas grenade | Toledo: This is a CS tear gas grenade. So what they do is they throw a barrage at you that will saturate an area in such a way that you cannot breathe. | 13:35 |
| FX: Crowd |
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| Conseco: It's difficult to be part of the opposition here and to have a democratic position in the midst of an, not only an authoritarian government, but an authoritarian culture. |
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Conseco interview Super: Javier Diez Conseco Congressman | You have here a culture of fear. And it's very difficult to overcome fear. | 13:55 |
Elian interview Super: Elian Toledo Wife of Opposition Leader | Elian: Throughout the campaign, intelligence service members have called my child telling her to be careful, we're going to kill your dad. Tell him not to go to such and such a plane, tell him not to go into the plane because we will kill him. | 14:10 |
| Byrne: Toledo's wife, Elian, a Belgian-born banker, committed to her husband's cause. |
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| Elian: My husband is convinced that it's worth to die for such a cause. I cannot say so, because obviously I do not want to lose my family. It's the only thing I have. But I think it's too late to say whether it's worth it or not. | 14:29 |
Women's march | FX: Crowd | 14:42 |
Byrne in women's march | Byrne: This is the women's march, many of them wearing black to symbolise the death of democracy. As you can see, not a big police presence - it's more like a carnival in there. Restraint has - so far - been the government's smartest strategy. Let the opposition talk about repression, violence, take over the streets. But as long as the government doesn't bite back, which side looks the most responsible? | 14:54 |
| Byrne: The women and those who've joined them sweep through the streets unimpeded. The lack of police response bodes well for the big march of the Cuatro Suyos, in two days time. But as the people sing of the president's demise, the president's men prepare. | 15:19 |
| FX: Siren |
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Fujimori distributes food | Byrne: In a desperately poor country like Peru, Fujimori's hands-on approach has been the key to his success. No matter that he didn't pay for this food and clothing. Nor organise for its distribution. Fujimori has refined taking credit to an art form. | 15:59 |
Community kitchen | Peru's extensive network of community kitchens for example, providing meals and milk to an astonishing 60 per cent of Peruvians. They would starve without them. | 16:20 |
| This tiny kitchen is one of 58 in Cuzco. They are supposedly independent -- the officials locally elected, most of the food coming from foreign donations. |
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Woman | Woman: The majority are single mothers... we don't have jobs - our husbands don't have jobs - there are many children. They feel grateful to the government. | 16:44 |
| Byrne: But Fujimori has been steadily undermining the integrity of this food network - creating a strong sense of dependence on, and obligation to, his government. | 16:55 |
Elian | Elian: What is very sad is that Fujimori makes it look as though he provides for that. Because he uses the food donation, and humanitarian help, which comes from abroad, for himself. And he gives it the name, he says I give it to you myself personally, therefore I buy your conscience and your vote. | 17:07 |
Marchers/police | Byrne: And there are other ways that Fujimori is accused of buying votes, not just from his people, but directly from the politicians. . | 17:25 |
Byrne to camera | If the presidency was won by fraud, the congress was secured by a more blatant means. Fujimori's party was in fact in the minority after the election which many saw as a healthy state of affairs. That congress could apply a brake on the president's power. But the president had other plans. | 17:40 |
Congress file footage |
| 17:55 |
| Byrne: One by one amidst extraordinary scenes, independent and opposition congressmen unexpectedly crossed the floor to line up with the government. |
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| Those holding out threw coins and called "turncoat" as more than a dozen members switched sides - enough to give Fujimori the majority which the voters had denied him. Conseco: And those are the people that have sold themselves. And obviously have cheated the electors |
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Conseco | because they ran with the proposition of being an opposition member of congress a democratic member of congress. And now they have sold their conscience and their political thought to Fujimori. Byrne: What's the going rate to win the vote of a congressman? Conseco: They said it was $10,000 a month plus a one time fee that they paid when this congressman approached them. | 18:26 |
Toledo with Alfonsin | Byrne: Toledo is courting international support - the likes of Raoul Alfonsin - former president of Argentina and other Latin American leaders from countries which reported gross irregularities during the elections but later declined to intervene. The United States cut aid to Peru in protest but now says it will work with Fujimori for the time being. Fujimori in turn pledged to reform the electoral process But he's made such promises before. | 18:58 |
Toledo interview | Byrne: Do you believe he has such intentions? Toledo: Nada - not a bit. Not one inch He has no credibility whatsoever in the eyes of the Peruvians and the international community has told him straight on, yes we know about your promises. Byrne: And America, it's sold you down the river hasn't it? Toledo: That's the opinion of the United States. You will hear tomorrow the opinion of Peruvians. | 19:29 |
Marchers | FX: Crowd | 19:57 |
| Byrne: And indeed the next day the voices of Peruvians were to be heard loud and clear. |
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| FX: Whistles/drums/chanting |
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| Byrne: From los cuatros suyos - the four corners of Peru they gathered to support democracy and to oppose Fujimori. | 20:23 |
Toledo addresses crowd | FX: Crowd |
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| Byrne: At the last minute, President Fujimori passes a law banning press helicopters from flying over the city. Toledo's people claim it is to prevent the public seeing the strength of the demonstration. Fujimori's people claim the demonstration is pitifully small. |
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| Chavez: He has got no more than 50,000 people, and I am very generous to give him 50,000 people in that meeting. Byrne: Were you there? Chavez: No, no, I saw it by television. Byrne: Would you believe me if I said it looked more than 50,000 people? Chavez: Perhaps. But I haven't heard about people saying more than 50,000. | 21:07 |
Chavez interview
Super: Martha Chavez Government MP | Byrne: Do you believe Peru is ready for true democracy? Chavez: No I think we are building our democracy, and if you ask me is there any democracy in the world I should say there is no democracy in the world. | 21:32 |
| Byrne: Rightly or wrongly, do you accept that some Peruvians are afraid. Chavez: Yes in any country I think all people in all countries is afraid of their secret services. I think secret services are not what they say. Byrne: So you think it's okay to be afraid? Chavez: I think that as in religion the first stage of love is to be afraid. To have fear of but it's not enough. From the fear of being afraid you have to grow to love. |
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Army on street/Presidential inauguration | Byrne: But some things in Peru are difficult to grow to love. | 22:36 |
| Amidst massive security the President prepares for his third inauguration. |
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| Fujimori is internationally isolated - few foreigners attend. |
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| Even within his own capital, Fujimori must barricade himself from his people. |
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| The police, the army, the church, remain loyal but as the ceremonies begin it is not tears of joy in the eyes of the beholders -the teargas is just two blocks away. | 23:08 |
| With an iron fist strangling opposition -Fujimori takes power for another five years. The remnants of the protest are no match for the military. |
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Protestors/fires | The most frustrated of the protestors basically turn upon themselves -- fires are lit in public buildings - no one knows by whom. In one fire the disputed election returns are incinerated. And by the end of the night there will be six dead. The government blames Toledo's people. Toledos people blame the government. Truth is obscured on all sides. The only thing clear is the passion that remains. | 23:53 |
Toledo/Police on tanks | Byrne: How far are you prepared to push it? Are you prepared to push to restore democracy or to get rid of this particular president? Toledo: To the end. Byrne: The dictatorships for which South America became rightly famous may have changed. But the conditions which bore them have not, nor has the struggle against them. | 24:32 |
Credits: | Reporter: Jennifer Byrne Camera: Geoff Clegg Sound: Kate Graham Editor: Stuart Miller Research: Vivien Altman Producer: Andrew Clark Production Company: ABC Australia |
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