Peru: Divorcing a Dictator
Evangelicals assess the bitter lessons of the Fujimori years
David Miller in Lima, Peru | posted 2/05/2001 12:00AM
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Peace and Hope's director, Alfonso Wieland, does not know how many evangelicals support the pro-democracy movement, but he admitted that few have done it openly. "What is quite clear is that it has been a minority," he said.
In September, investigators linked Vladimiro Montesinos, chief of national intelligence and Fujimori's closest political associate, to a scheme to smuggle guns to Colombian guerrillas. Soon afterward, a hidden video camera taped Montesinos bribing an opposition congressman. Public outcry came swift and loud. Fujimori sacked Montesinos, who fled the country with $50 million. Two weeks later, the chief executive followed, faxing his resignation to Congress from a hotel in Japan. Fujimori's departure sparked jubilation in Peru.
Soul-Searching
Amid the rejoicing, however, evangelicals are reflecting on the lessons of the past decade and planning their next political moves. "I'm a bit skeptical that the evangelical community has learned its lesson," Wieland said, citing the formation of at least three new evangelical political parties. One, the National Restoration Movement, is collecting signatures to register for elections in April, hoping to send more evangelicals to Congress. Carlos GarcÍa is among the candidates. CONEP leaders share Wieland's skepticism.
"I have always opposed the formation of Christian political parties," said Pedro Arana, an elder statesman among Peruvian evangelicals. "In Western history, these parties have always been a cross for the church to bear. They deprive other political parties of the presence and influence of Christian persons, who are necessary in order to form an accurate vision of society. And they tend to add religious tensions to political conflicts."
Arana, a deputy to the constituent assembly that wrote the national Constitution of 1979, now serves as general secretary of the Peruvian Bible Society. "We have to get it out of the brothers' heads that only evangelicals can change Peru," Wieland said. "In politics, you have to make common cause with other sectors of society."
Evangelical political veterans believe that the church's activism should be focused on educating the grassroots instead of electing candidates. "You have to have two very solid foundations for your participation in political life: transparent ethics and a fair knowledge of political reality," said Milton Guerrero, who served as a government economist and member of Peru's Parliament in the 1980s. "How do you train for that? By being a leader in your local neighborhood, in parent-teacher associations in the schools, in the professional organizations to which you belong."
One venue through which evangelicals can affect public life is the Truth Commission, a government task force appointed in December by Fujimori's successor, ValentÍn Paniagua. CONEP is among nine organizations invited to form the commission, which will investigate human-rights issues arising from the Shining Path war.
Paniagua has given the Truth Commission a mandate to "ensure national reconciliation, within the declared purpose of constructing a nation free of human rights violations." If anyone knows about reconciliation, evangelical Christians should. If they can help bring healing to Peru, that will justify the tough lessons they have learned in the past ten years.
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