In a strange twist to Chilean-Peruvian politics, the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori arrived in Chile and was arrested on an international warrant.
This comes at an interesting time. Peru's congress recently passed legislation deeming their country in control of a fish rich slot of 17,000 square KM, despite that there was an agreement between the countries made some 50 years ago.
It will be interesting to see how this influences the tone of conversation, the fact that Chile now has someone Peru wants might change some of the dynamics over this border dispute.
Overall, there have been some ongoing stories worth following. One is the Cuadra story, the former government spokesman turned university rector who revealed some interesting info in an interview recently that indicates he knew a lot more about some of the revenge killings after the attempted assassination of Pinochet than he indicated at the time.
Then of course there is the Summit of the Americas, which wrapped up this last weekend. Apart from the regular summit, there was an anti-Bush summit nearby that drew a lot of attention.
From an article in today's Santiago Times (members only):
The strong showing of anti-Bush supporters, however, seems to confirm a recent study by British newspaper “The Economist” that showed anti-American sentiment is growing in South America. The study classified Argentina, along with Uruguay and Venezuela, as one of the most anti-American countries in South America, citing President Bush, the invasion of Iraq, and U.S. economic influence as factors encouraging the strong sentiment.
Bush really has to be feeling the heat at this point, or maybe his bubble is even more insulated than I imagine.
CB
2 comments:
I think the scariest thing here is that there are a lot of Peruvians who actually support Fujimori. He wouldn't have come back if he didn't think he had a pretty good chance of getting back into the good graces of Peruvian voters and authorities. I guess some people would rather have "order" (side effects: robbery, extorsion and outright murder, in the case of Fujimori) than democracy, which they must just think is too messy. Here's hoping the Chilean supreme court does its job well so that he gets extradited.
Yes, he does seem to have some support in Peru...I really wonder what he has up his sleeve, how he will use the court process to his advantage. He is already getting alot of attention, as I'm sure he planned on, what I would like to know is whether he was waiting for the right opportunity and saw something he liked within the border conflict, or if it is just a coincidence...
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