POLITICS-PERU: Fujimori Under Fire from Canada, EU, Unions

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 30 2000 (IPS) - A World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting to studying Peru’s trade policies Tuesday turned into a forum for criticising the government of this South American country, the outcome of its electoral process and recent political incidents.

The Canadian delegation energetically questioned the way Peru’s presidential elections had developed, concluding last Sunday with the re-election of president Alberto Fujimori to a third consecutive term.

In the run-off election last weekend, Fujimori defeated Alejandro Toledo, the opposition candidate, who had pulled out of the race to protest the alleged vote rigging in the first round that he attributed to the government.

In a sharply worded, politically charged statement about the internal issues of a fellow WTO member country – a tone not usually heard in this organisation – the Canadian delegation condemned the conditions in which the elections were carried out and the incidents over the weekend in which protests met with police repression.

At WTO Trade Policy Review Body’s first session dedicated to Peru, the European Union (EU) joined in the criticisms, but its concerns focused on the general conditions of the Peruvian political sphere, said sources close to the negotiators.

The United States delegation, meanwhile, reportedly stuck to trade issues only and applauded Fujimori for the direction he has given his country in this area.

Meanwhile, the largest international labour central, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), headquartered in Brussels, released its report on Peru’s compliance with labour regulations.

The ICFTU document maintains that “since President Fujimori’s suspension of the Constitution and assumption of emergency powers in 1992, trade unions have been systematically attacked and victimised.”

“There is no doubt that President Fujimori’s targeting of trade union movement has formed a major part of his strategy of eliminating all possible centres of opposition over his time in power,” says the report, signed by Bill Jordan, secretary-general of this international, social-democratic union.

This stance “demonstrates Fujimori’s concern that the unions could play a unique part in achieving democracy and respect for human rights in Peru.”

Jordan predicted that following Fujimori’s “widely questionable” victory, it is likely that antagonisms against labour rights would intensify, given the president’s “increasingly dictatorial behaviour.”

The 1992 Industrial Relations Act brought in by Fujimori has severely restricted union rights in Peru, according to ICFTU, and it is currently very difficult to form new trade unions there.

Workers’ organisations have been weakened by privatisations and the rationalisation of industry and state enterprises, which the government and employers have used a pretext to remove trade unions, says the report.

At the privatised Telefónica and Enafer (railroad) companies, workers were dismissed and offered jobs at the newly created firms, but under worse work conditions, at lower wages, and without union rights. Telefónica, for example, laid off 7,000 employees despite its promises of job security.

Peru’s government, says the ICFTU, has used the police and the army to brutally intervene in legitimate union activities. Police were called in during an April 1999 national strike and used tear gas in its attack against peaceful protests.

The major issues of child and forced labour have yet to be addressed in Peru, says the ICFTU. An estimated two million children and adolescents work, including some 500,000 – younger than 14 – who work instead of attending school.

The international union’s report states that eight percent of the Peruvian workforce is made up of children ages six to 14.

The most infamous case of child labour is the Ananea glacier gold mine, where children work in temperatures of 26 degrees below zero. Children measuring less than 90 cm in height are used at the mine because they can easily traverse the mine’s narrow passages, according to the ICFTU.