Declaration on Peru

Meeting of the Socialist International Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, Bogotá, Colombia, 4-5 October 1999

Original: Spanish

The Socialist International Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, SICLAC, meeting in Bogotá on 4-5 October 1999,

Expresses its alarm and deepest concern at the current situation with regard to the rule of law in Peru, welcomes and lends its active support to the struggle of the Peruvian Aprista Party to defend democracy and social justice and denounces the systematic persecution of political leaders, the harassing of opponents and presidential candidates and the coercion of the media opposed to the regime.

In the light of these events which flagrantly violate the law and attempt to deny the right to vote and to be elected of the former President of Peru, Alan García, who has been nominated to head the parliamentary list of the APRA, and which are expected to be extended to other candidates for Congress and the Presidency,

Agrees,

To demand that Alberto Fujimori's regime duly respect the will of the people by organising free elections and cease its acts of hostility towards sectors of the democratic opposition and its enforcement of unconstitutional laws intended to prevent Alan García from exercising his political and civil rights.