A Model for the Future?

Abstract

A remarkable story unfolded last year in Peru: The Organization of American States (OAS) played a central role in successfully resolving a crisis sparked by President Alberto Fujimori’s efforts to win an unprecedented third term in office. In disputed first-round elections on 9 April 2000, Fujimori won just under 50 percent of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with second-place finisher Alejandro Toledo. As the May 28 runoff approached, however, concerns over electoral fraud led Toledo to withdraw and the OAS to suspend its own electoral-observation mission. The suspect election, which triggered widespread popular protest in Peru, became the main agenda item at the annual General Assembly of the OAS in Windsor, Ontario, at the beginning of June. Building on a recent trend of defending democracy in the Americas through multilateral means, the OAS General Assembly arrived at a diplomatic compromise. It adopted Resolution 1753, which sent a HighLevel Mission led by OAS secretary general Cesar Gaviria and Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy to Peru on June 27–30. Their visit resulted in the establishment of an OAS-facilitated mesa de dialogo (roundtable), where Peruvian government, opposition, and civil society representatives discussed a concrete reform agenda. Despite widespread initial skepticism both in Peru and internationally, this OAS initiative provided a mechanism for important democratic reforms, eased the Andrew F. Cooper, professor of political science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, is coeditor of Enhancing Global Governance: Towards a New Diplomacy? (forthcoming, United Nations University Press). During the spring semester of 2000, he was a CanadaU.S. Fulbright Scholar at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. Thomas Legler has taught Latin American politics at the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto. In April 2001, he observed the first-round presidential election in Peru.