Word: bela
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...women and children, and behind them the short, silent, barrel-chested men armed with slingshots, rusty rifles, and carrying Tierra o Muerte banners. Once again Peru's restless peasants were trying to chase landowners off their estates. The invasions have been going on for months, and President Fernando Belaúnde Terry has hesitated to intervene. But last week, when 8,000 peasants appeared at 14 haciendas near Cuzco in the southern highlands, troops drove them back in a pitched battle that left 17 dead, 32 wounded on both sides. Within hours, Belaúnde declared martial...
Reform was the fiery charger that carried Architect Fernando Belaúnde Terry into the presidency of Peru last June, and now he cannot dismount. Belaúnde promised to redistribute land, conjured up visions of public housing to replace the slums of Lima, talked of a vast road system to open up the rich lowlands beyond the Andes. But the most emotional pledge of all-and one echoed by all his opponents-was a promise to do something drastic about International Petroleum Co., the Standard Oil of New Jersey affiliate that owns one of Peru's richest oilfields...
Last week, at the end of the 90 days Belaúnde had promised himself to renegotiate the oil contract, Peru's Congress unanimously-right, left and center-shouted through a law canceling I.P.C.'s concession. "This," cried one conservative Congressman, "is an act of national liberation." Still in Congress is a second bill setting the terms for I.P.C. to remain in Peru. Along with other taxes, the bill calls for a 60% income tax without a depletion allowance. Although no specific sum is mentioned in the bill, the company may also have to pay a $50 million...
...Agreement. Once in office, Belaúnde opened negotiations for a new contract with I.P.C. President Milo M. Brisco. But the talks quickly turned sour. The company argued that Belaúnde's demand for $50 million plus a future 60% income tax amounted to "economic confiscation," took ads in Lima papers to show that I.P.C. would be losing money. I.P.C. wanted a 50% income tax; it agreed to pay the $50 million but insisted that these payments be considered deductible expenses against future taxes. All of this, the Peruvians refused...
...Belaúnde prepared to take the matter to Congress, the U.S. State Department expressed hope of an amicable settlement "before the Peruvian Congress passes a law that the government of the U.S. does not consider satisfactory." But in the present Peruvian mood, chances are that Peru's Congress, having already revoked the I.P.C. concession, will now pass the second bill, putting it squarely up to I.P.C. to come to terms...