Word: nde
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...presence of 8,000 riot-gear-equipped police in Lima made it clear that the government of President Fernando Belaúnde Terry was taking the 24-hour general strike very seriously. Early Thursday morning, police pointed their shotguns at drivers of trucks with space available who tried to ignore workers seeking rides. Youths who were spotted trying to collect rocks or debris were chased, beaten with nightsticks and sometimes shoved into police vans. Jorge del Prado, 73, a senator and leader of the Peruvian Communist Party, was struck in the chest by a tear-gas canister fired at close...
...avert the strike, Belaunde, 72, called for a national three-day suspension of liberties, prohibiting demonstrations and meetings, and gave police broader powers of arrest. This kept disturbances to a minimum. But perhaps the most important deterrent to a larger strike came three days earlier, when Belaúnde announced the removal of Finance Minister Carlos Rodriguez Pastor. Rodriguez Pastor had engineered an austerity program under which the country was beginning to strain. His replacement, José Benavides Muñoz, was expected to look for economic alternatives, but the strikers remained unimpressed...
Peru's economy began to slide in 1980 under the pressure of a world recession and low prices for the country's copper and lead exports. Belaúnde further undermined the economy by borrowing excessively from other countries and failing to curb money-losing state enterprises. The gross domestic product declined 12% last year, the worst performance in Latin America. Inflation hit 125%, unemployment 8.3% and underemployment 51%. The Peruvian sol declined 130% against the dollar during 1983. The country's foreign debt is $13 billion, about two-thirds of its gross domestic production. Bela...
...Belaúnde well knows, the most likely threat to Peru's fledgling democracy is actually from the right. In Lima's coffee houses, talk often turns to fears that the Sendero attacks will strengthen the hand of military hard-liners who would prefer a more authoritarian government. There have even been rumors of a military coup similar to the one that deposed Belaúnde in his first term as democratically elected President...
...fact, no one in the army is eager to challenge Belaúnde's authority. Not only has he taken care to pay his generals well, but no military leaders are credited with his political skills. The Sendero threat has increased just as Peru is struggling with a severe drought in the south, flooding in the north and a crushing economic recession. Says a Peruvian Congressman: "Who else would want to try running things right now? It would be political suicide." With the Senderistas showing every sign of intensifying their attacks, Belaúnde's job may soon...