08 setiembre 2006

Elections 2006 link

Peru nationalist Humala charged with murder


Fri 1 Sep 2006 2:33 PM ET
(Updates with Humala comments)

By Robin Emmott

LIMA, Peru, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The runner-up in Peru's 2006 presidential election and the nation's de facto opposition leader has been charged with murder in connection with his role in fighting Maoist rebels and drug traffickers in the 1990s.

Ollanta Humala, who lost to President Alan Garcia but whose movement holds the largest number of seats in Congress, cannot leave the country and must post bail of 20,000 soles ($6,170), Judge Miluska Cano said in a ruling late on Thursday.

No date has been set for his trial.

Humala, a 44-year-old ex-army officer who remains immensely popular in Peru's poor southern Andes, is accused of conducting kidnaps and murders while fighting leftist insurgents and cocaine traffickers at a jungle army base in 1992.

Humala on Friday denied any wrongdoing and said the charges were aimed at preventing his nationalist movement from winning mayoral posts in November's regional elections.

"I took part in a war to uphold the rule of law, I played the role of judge, priest and brother to many, but I never abused anyone's rights," Humala told reporters.

"This is clearly a political persecution by Garcia's government to destroy the opposition," he added, flanked by his wife, Nadine.

His lawyer, Carlos Escobar, called the judge's ruling "absurd."

The charges relate to when Humala was a captain at a jungle military base in the coca-growing department of San Martin in northern Peru, then a front line in the government's fight against the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group and drug traffickers.

Escobar said Humala's enduring popularity in the area was a testament to his innocence. Official results from the June runoff against Garcia show Humala won 81 percent of the votes in the Nuevo Progreso district within San Martin department.

Humala, who led a failed military rebellion against former President Alberto Fujimori in 2000, played up his military background at rallies, even as the accusations circulated.

He has promised to lead a fierce opposition against Garcia but so far has had little success in influencing policy or denting the president's high popularity ratings during Garcia's honeymoon period.

House could delay vote on Peru trade bill

Wed Sep 6, 2006 4:26 PM ET

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives will likely delay a vote on a free trade pact with Peru until after the November 7 congressional election, U.S. trade experts said on Wednesday.

"I think the political reality is that Peru will not move in September," said Christopher Wenk, international trade policy director for the National Association of Manufacturers.

The agreement locks in Peru's current duty-free access to the U.S. market, while phasing out tariffs and other barriers to U.S. exports to the Andean nation. Without the agreement, Peru's trade benefits would expire at the end of the year.

The two countries finished negotiations in December 2005 after about 18 months of hard bargaining.

Democrats, who hope to capture control of the House in the November election, have long pushed for stronger labor provisions in U.S. free trade pacts and complain the Bush administration ignored former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo's offer to include those in the accord with Peru.

The Peru agreement could trigger controversy if House Republicans push for a vote this month, said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics.

"I think it's much more likely to come up in the 'lame duck' session (after the election) and get passed then without a lot of fuss," Hufbauer said.

A separate free trade agreement with Colombia will probably generate more opposition, but Congress won't vote on that until next year at the earliest, he said.

Wenk and Hufbauer agreed the Bush administration would face a tougher time winning approval of free trade agreements if Democrats take control of the House.

Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, said the administration was still consulting with House leaders about the "appropriate timing" of a vote on the Peru agreement. The first step would be for USTR to send a bill to Congress to implement the pact and there has been no decision on when to do that, Spicer said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has said he would push for a Senate vote on the Peru agreement this month.

Trade bills are generally less controversial in the Senate, but both chambers must approve any trade agreement.


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