Change in Peru

TOPLINE: After a decade of authoritarian rule by Alberto Fujimori, Peruvians will finally select a new president on Sunday. A runoff election pits against each other the two candidates who survived a five-candidate vote in April -- former President Alan Garcia and opposition leader Alejandro Toledo.

IN CONTEXT: Garcia returned from exile in January -- just after corruption charges against him expired -- and launched a campaign to regain the Peruvian presidency, a position he held from 1985 until 1990. Garcia left office after his economic policies had driven Peru's annual inflation rate to an astonishing 7,600 percent.

The silver-tongued Garcia, once compared to former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, threw himself into a race that most observers expected to boil down to former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores and economist Toledo, an Andean Indian who forced then-President Fujimori -- who succeeded Garcia -- into a runoff last year.

• KEY QUESTIONS   • KEY PLAYERS   • BOTTOM LINE   PROFILES   • Alejandro Toledo   • Alan Garcia     ELECTION WATCH Peruvian presidential election

Toledo withdrew from the runoff, claiming the election was rigged, and Fujimori, running unopposed, was re-elected.

Fujimori's rule was short-lived, however. Caught between massive protests led by Toledo and the release of a videotape implicating Vladimir Montesinos -- Fujimori's spy chief -- in a corruption scandal, Fujimori called for early elections and announced he would not participate.

Later ruled unfit to serve by Peru's legislature, Fujimori resigned in November 2000 and Congress President Valentin Paniagua was named to take his place until the April 8, 2001, vote.

Toledo took more than a third of the vote in that election, but a tiff between him and Flores during the campaign gave Garcia an opening. He slipped past the congresswoman, garnering nearly 26 percent of the vote to Flores' 24 percent.

Garcia acknowledged mistakes in his previous term as president that wrecked Peru's economy and says now that he has changed his views. Toledo is battling charges -- which he vehemently denies -- that he lied about fathering an illegitimate child and has used cocaine.

• Toledo likely to face runoff in Peru election
April 8, 2001
• Carter predicts fair presidential election in Peru
April 7, 2001

• Presidency of Peru (in Spanish)
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru
• Congress of the Republic of Peru

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