PERU: LIMA: ANTI FUJIMORI PROTESTS

Описание: (7 Jan 2000) Spanish/Nat
Around four thousand protestors took to the streets in Peru's capital Lima Thursday to protest President Alberto Fujimori's decision to run for a third term.
Workers, students, and opposition politicians burned effigies and filled the main square in front of the government palace.
Riot police were stationed along several protest routes early in the day to quell any violence.
Business owners around the palace closed their shutters as the throng of protesters, waving banners and red flags, filled the main square.
Demonstrators burned a black coffin emblazoned with the words "The Constitution Died."
Riot police guarded key government buildings.
The heaviest police presence was concentrated around the National Elections Board headquarters, eight blocks from the palace.
Simultaneous protests were staged on Thursday in other main cities.
On New Year's Eve, the National Elections Board, dominated by Fujimori's appointees, cleared the way for his unprecedented bid for a third term in office.
By doing so it rejected 18 legal challenges from the opposition.
Fujimori's foes say his candidacy violates both the letter and spirit of the constitution, and accuse the 61-year-old president of trying to propagate a democratically elected dictatorship.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
This is a peaceful protest but it should show the government the rejection of all classes - the intellectuals, the opposition parties - of the illegal desire to remain in power."
SUPER CAPTION: Juan Jose Gorriti, Secretary General of the Union of Workers
Fujimori first took office in 1990.
He announced his plans on December 27 to seek a third consecutive five-year term in general elections on April 9.
The Congress, dominated by Fujimori supporters, circumvented the ban on a third straight term in 1996 with a controversial law that purportedly "interpreted" the 1993 constitution.
The law said Fujimori's first election did not count toward the maximum of two consecutive terms permitted because his 1990 victory predated the new constitution's enactment.

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