By
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru - President Alberto Fujimori, dragged down by a bribery scandal involving his feared intelligence chief, met yesterday with his Cabinet to pave the way for new elections and plan his exit from power, as Peruvians took to the streets and flooded radio stations to voice their joy or sorrow.
Health Minister Alejandro Aguinaga said the new elections Fujimori announced hours earlier to find a successor would probably be held in six to seven months. Speaking with reporters before entering the Cabinet meeting, Aguinaga said Fujimori's ministers were backing his decision to call new elections in which he would not be a candidate.
Some opposition leaders called yesterday for Fujimori to step down immediately and allow for a transition government. Fujimori didn't say whether or not he would remain in power until the elections are held.
Alejandro Toledo, who pulled out of the May presidential runoff after charging that Fujimori planned to rig the results, said from Washington that he was returning to Peru yesterday to help to create "a government of national unity."
He praised Fujimori's decision to give up power and pave the way for a peaceful transition to a new government.
"The political opposition in Peru should not be thinking about a witch hunt," he said. "We have to think about a government of national unity and preparing an economic reactivation program ... more than political confrontation."
The 62-year-old Fujimori, smiling and looking at ease, stunned the nation with his surprise announcement late Saturday. He said the vote was necessary after the political uproar over a videotape allegedly showing his intelligence chief bribing an opposition congressman to support the government.
"Despite having been elected by a majority of the population, I do not want to become a disturbing factor, and much less, an obstacle to the strengthening of the democratic system," Fujimori said.
As tens of thousands of opponents celebrated the beginning of the end to Fujimori's decade in power, supporters spoke out yesterday to defend his record and remind the world why this son of impoverished Japanese immigrants has ruled for as long as he has.
"As many people are doing, I want to thank the president for all of the work he has done," said Carmen Sanchez Hurtado, one of dozens of Peruvians who flooded radio stations Sunday with calls of support for Fujimori. "I'm simply a housewife who saw her daughters study by candlelight when there was terrorism, afraid to send them to school because of the problems that existed at that time."
The outpouring of support contrasted with the thousands of Peruvians who took to the streets Saturday night to celebrate.
Caravans of drivers waved red-and-white Peruvian flags and honked their car horns into the early morning hours Sunday, celebrating the news that the man dubbed "The Emperor" for his tough governing style was stepping down.
"I'm drunk with happiness because I am in MY plaza, looking at MY palace, which is no longer theirs but is MY palace again," Fernando Prada, a recent 24-year-old university graduate, said as he celebrated with friends in front of the Government Palace. "We achieved something I couldn't have imagined. It happened because of the will of the people who have rejected corruption."
The United States, which questioned the legitimacy of Fujimori's re-election this year, yesterday urged a peaceful and open move to "full democracy."
White House spokesman Jake Siewert, traveling in Pennsylvania with President Clinton, pointed out that the United States has been encouraging political reform since the elections in May. In light of Fujimori's decision, Siewert said, "We hope that all elements in Peru will work a peaceful and transparent process to achieve full democracy."
Fujimori leaves behind a legacy of having successfully combatted bloody leftist insurgencies that took 30,000 lives and taming hyperinflation that reached nearly 8,000 percent his first year in office. He stabilized a chaotic economy and attracted record amounts of foreign investment although his free-market economic policies failed to generate jobs for millions of Peru's unemployed.
A public opinion poll released last week gave Fujimori a 42 percent approval rating.
''I have governed Peru for the last 10 years. Not even my detractors would fail to recognize fundamental achievements which I will not enumerate. You know what they are,'' the bespectacled Fujimori said in his nationwide television address.
"I hope that Peru my country and the place to which I have devoted 10 years of intense work, seeking the maximum efficiency to raise it from the ruins will not move backwards in terms of peace and development."
The government provided no information as to the whereabouts of intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, whose immediate arrest was demanded by opposition leaders. Some news reports said he had been arrested but there was no confirmation.
Many Peruvians have viewed Montesinos, Fujimori's closest adviser, as having even greater power than Fujimori. He hand-picked Peru's top generals and ran a spy network that provided him with information that he allegedly used against opponents to bend them to his will.
Mirko Lauer, a columnist for La Republica, a paper with an investigative reporting team knowledgeable about the inner workings of Peru's armed forces, said he understood Montesinos was held up at Las Palmas air base, where the National Intelligence Service is headquartered.
He said Fujimori made the decision to resign when top military officers loyal to Montesinos put pressure on him not to fire his intelligence chief.
"At that moment he understood that he had lost his battle because he couldn't go on as president after unsuccessfully trying to sack Montesinos. That is the moment he decided to resign," Lauer said.
