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This week, it is Peru's turn to host the annual Ibero-American summit, which, protected by 22,000 policemen, gathers in Lima 23 heads of state and government, including Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Spain's King Juan Carlos.
It couldn't happen at a worse time for Peru's president, Alejandro Toledo.
Last Thursday, some 300 laid-off Peruvian government employees clashed with police outside Congress in a rising tide of protests by Peruvians demanding Toledo make good on campaign pledges. This was the latest protest by disillusioned Peruvians hoping he would quickly deliver on campaign promises to improve their lot amid a crippling three-year recession. Toledo promised to create one million new jobs during his five-year term, but is hamstrung by a paralyzed economy.
As this weren't enough, an anonymous statement released last week, supposedly by a group of disgruntled air force commanders, accused the government of mistreating the military and hinted at a possible coup. Claiming to represent a recently formed group called the "Jose Quiñones Command," the statement warned "not to doubt for one moment that we will reply by establishing order and security." The three-page document urged Congress to investigate alleged corruption, "thus avoiding our intervention."
But Congress is too busy investigating deposed president Alberto Fujimori, who sought refuge in Japan. Probing the Fujimori regime has come to dominate activities in Congress, to the point that little legislating is getting done. Ninety-nine of the legislature's 120 members sit on 64 committees that are looking into the deposed government.
A recent survey by pollsters CPI in Lima gave Toledo a 34 percent approval rating and a 54 percent disapproval rating. The poll of 400 people was conducted on the weekend, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. It followed a survey at the end of October by pollsters Apoyo showing a 17-point drop in popularity for Toledo, who was sworn into office in late July for a five-year term.
Seeking to regain momentum after diving in popularity in his first 3-1/2 months in office, Toledo, in an effort to build cross-party consensus, held talks with the man he defeated for the presidency, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance leader Alan Garcia, Peru's president from 1985 to 1990, whom Toledo defeated by about 53 percent to 47 percent in the June presidential runoff.
But, whatever Toledo's problems, the Ibero-American meeting is going on, with Spain calling the shots.
Argentina's perilous financial situation-its virtual impossibility to meet payments on its $132 billion foreign debt-and its impact on other Latin American economies is haunting the discussions. Already, at the recent meeting of the Group of 20 in Ottawa, Spain's Economy minister, Rodrigo Rato, pledged to back up Argentina's plight at the main multilateral financial organizations.
But Argentina is only a side-show. The effect of the world crisis, deepened by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, is at the heart of the problems the Lima meeting is dealing with. The international crisis has cut down of the flow of capitals to the Latin American region in more that $40 billion, which is contributing to a drop in growth this year from 3 to 1 percent. Specifically, the contraction in U.S. is hitting some Latin American economies, such as Mexico's, which sends to the United States 85 percent of its exports. Other problems are hurting the region, such as the drop in oil and copper prices which affect Venezuela and Chile.
But Spain, which plays a leading role in these meetings, has also stated that, on terrorism, "the issue is to go beyond the mere declarations of condemnations and solidarity with the victims, to state concrete objectives to fight terrorism efficiently."
Referring to Cuban opposition at the previous summit in Panama to subscribe to a condemnation of terrorism, Spain's foreign minister, Josep Piqué, warned of the need to avoid "ambiguities" in this matter, saying "we should not he hostage to absolute consensus" and "we should express an opinion shared by the mejority."
Spain is advocating at the summit meeting for a categorical condemnation of global terrorism. "We expect an Ibero-American commitment in everything that has to do with the fight against terrorism, the eradication of terror and the regional contribution to all efforts made to eliminate terrorism around the world," said Spain's prime minister, José María Aznar.
Claudio Campuzano (claudio-campuzano@hotmail.com) is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com