Democracy, Unrest on Agenda at Latam Summit

Thu May 22, 2003 02:03 AM ET By Missy Ryan

LIMA, Peru (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - More than a dozen Latin American presidents will look for ways to rein in social unrest and strengthen challenged democracies in a summit starting on Friday in the Peruvian city of Cusco.

Presidents are due to arrive in the mountain city, once capital to the vast Inca empire, on Thursday for the annual summit of the 19-member Rio Group, which includes democracies from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.

The meeting will focus on making governance more effective in a region emerging from economic crisis but facing rampant poverty and political instability.

"First, how do we take care of social demands from people in our countries? Also (the summit will address) the erosion of these countries' democratic institutions, which makes governing difficult," Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Wagner told CPN radio.

According to the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the region is recovering from a crippling economic crisis that has included a default and devaluation in Argentina and strikes in Venezuela. Its economy should grow close to 2 percent this year.

But that projected growth -- a welcome change from last year's 0.6 percent contraction -- will not be enough to slash widespread poverty in Latin America, the commission says.

Nor is it likely to quell the political and social unrest Latin America has seen recently -- like that which helped topple Argentine ex-President Fernando de la Rua in December 2001, a short-lived coup against Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez in 2002 and ongoing strikes in Peru.

Some analysts say unrest is rooted in widespread disappointment in democratic leaders who Latin Americans believe have failed to ease poverty following authoritarian regimes of the 1970s and 1980s.

In Peru, for example, President Alejandro Toledo, who hailed a return to democracy after ex-President Alberto Fujimori's tarnished decade-long regime, has an approval rating of 14 percent as people complain he has not fulfilled promises of jobs and prosperity.

"When they say we've got to make countries governable, what are they really asking? They are asking, 'How do we govern a country whose people are unhappy?"' said analyst Mirko Lauer.

The two-day summit, which begins on Friday, will also seek to firm up plans for a regional investment authority as well as a credit guarantee fund, Wagner told newspaper El Comercio.