Fw: Peru Reprivatizes State-Owned Utilities Despite Loud Protests

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

 Peru privatizes state-owned utilities despite loud  protests
 AFP - 6/15/2002
 LIMA - President Alejandro Toledo's government on
 Friday sold two state-owned electrical utilities to
 the Belgian firm Tractebel, despite loud protests
against the sale and a court ruling seeking to bar it.
 Tractebel, the only firm bidding in the sale, offered
 167 million dollars total for Egasa and Egesur, in a
 public session marked by the dramatic appearance of a
 legislator who has declared a hunger strike against
 the privatization.
 The sale sparked immediate protests in Peru's second
 largest city Arequipa, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles)
 south of Lima, where the two utilities are based.
 Twenty-six people were wounded in the protests, in
 which police lobbed tear gas at protesters throwing
 rocks at city offices and buildings.
 Among the injured was Arequipa police chief Eduardo
 Perez Rocha, struck in the head with a rock.
 The demonstrators yelled "Arequipa, revolution!" and
 "Urgent, urgent, new president!"
 Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi blamed the
 violence on "small groups of extremists seeking deaths
 and injuries to incite fury in the city."
 In a lunch with North American business executives
 Friday, Toledo vowed to continue the privatization of
 public entities "firmly, unambiguously and with
 energy," despite the unrest.
 "To grow, we need domestic and foreign private
 investment, and to attract investment, we need to
 create a climate of political, economic and social
 stability, and most of all legal stability, clear and
transparent rules of play," Toledo said.
 The sale Friday was enlivened by the appearance of
 Arturo Valderrama, an opposition legislator leading a
 push to reject privatization in Congress.
 Valderrama, who began a hunger strike Tuesday in
 Congress, approached those presiding over the sale
 with copies of a ruling issued Thursday by Arequipa
 judge Benny Alvarez ordering a halt to the sale.
Minister of Energy and Mines Jaime Quijandria and
 other officials hosting the sale were visibly annoyed
 by his interruption.
 "They're trying to give away Egasa and Egesur, the
 legitimate assets of Arequipa," Valderrama proclaimed
 loudly, as businessmen attending the sale looked on in
 surprise. Later they yelled: "Get out, you clown, get
 out!"
 Thursday, most of southern Peru, including two of the
 country's main cities, was paralyzed as thousands took
to the streets to protest the sale of two state-owned
 regional utility companies.
 Businesses closed and public transportation was at a
 standstill in Arequipa, Peru's second largest city,
 and Cuzco, the former Inca capital, throughout the
 day.
 Residents in a total of six southern departments, once
a hotbed of support for Toledo, went on strike
 demanding a special vote on the sale.
 Thirty people launched a hunger strike to protest the
 auction, including Arequipa Mayor Juan Manuel Guillen,
 a former Toledo ally. After the sale Friday, they said
 they would continue their strike.