November 26, 2000, 11:45
In a first, dramatic act just hours after being sworn in, Peru's new cabinet fired 15 army generals, thereby hoping to ensure the military's "impartiality" in a period of political uncertainty caused by the sudden resignation of President Alberto Fujimori.
The order of dismissal issued by Walter Ledesma Rebaza, the new Defence Minister, targeted among others Walter Chacon, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Carlos Balarezo, Air Force Commander.
Chacon was replaced by Carlos Tafur, who had been dismissed from active service in October after expressing disagreement with the Fujimori administration.
"We are going to guarantee the impartiality of the armed forces in the electoral process which is drawing closer. That is the principal task of our transitional government," Ledesma said in a statement.
"Our objective is to reinstitutionalise and depoliticise," he added, promising that other military officers dismissed by the Fujimori government would be reinstated.
The task now facing the armed forces was "to work for the consolidation of democracy, and to concentrate on the consolidation of peace in the country," Ledesma said.
The retired general is part of a 13-member cabinet that was sworn yesterday, four days after Fujimori faxed in his resignation letter from Japan, leaving his adopted country headless amid an escalating political crisis.
On Tuesday, the Peruvian Congress sacked Fujimori on grounds of "moral incapacity" and later named Valentin Paniagua, the parliamentary speaker, the country's interim president.
Headed by Javier Perez de Cuellar, former UN Secretary General , the new cabinet was portrayed as "a group of technocrats" acceptable to all the sectors of Peruvian society and able to lead the country until new presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for next April.
Prime Minister Perez de Cuellar (80) will also serve as foreign minister. He returned to Peru earlier this week after living in France since losing the 1995 presidential election to Fujimori.
The powerful post of interior minister went to General Antonio Ketin Vida Herrera.
Both the interior and defence ministers are known as strict professionals who keep their political views to themselves.
The economics post went to Javier Silva Ruete, who held that same job under a military regime that ruled Peru in the late 1970s.
In his first public comments, Ruete promised to adopt what he called "the most severe austerity program" in order to maintain economic stability.
"We need to reduce our budget deficit to a certain level," said the new economics minister.
"The only way to maintain financial stability would be to adopt a complex of measures and the most severe austerity program."
Overall, the new cabinet combined personalities who served under Fujimori, former president Fernando Belaunde (1980-1985) and various military
regimes that preceded him.
The government is the product of intense political consultations between Perez de Cuellar, newly appointed interim President Valentin Paniagua and leaders of major political parties.
One of President Paniagua's first tasks was to determine the government's position in the Organisation of American States (OAS) sponsored pro-democracy talks with opposition parties under Fujimori.
Eduardo Latorre, OAS representative, said on Thursday that the talks should continue, and that issues such as a national anti-corruption plan and judicial reform were still pending.
The new government will also have to find a way to deal with former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, whose return here from exile in Panama
last month, hastened Fujimori's political demise.
Montesinos, now in hiding, is accused of trying to bribe an opposition lawmaker in order to make him join the ruling party.
He is also implicated in an alleged arms-for-drugs deal with Colombian rebels. - AFP
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