Peru

Through its groundbreaking Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, The Carter Center partners with city leaders worldwide to raise awareness about women’s right to access information and to help cities reach women with valuable information and essential municipal services. 

Access to this information empowers women with a stronger voice, enabling them to participate in public life, utilize public services, and make more informed decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities. In Peru, the project has partnered with the city of Lima.

The Carter Center deployed a study mission for the first round and runoff of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Peru, held on April 10, 2016, and June 5, 2016, respectively.

Impacts

The mission met with political leaders, institutional authorities, researchers, and journalists, all of whom contributed to a comprehensive, pluralistic, representative view of chief trends in public opinion and an analysis of election day.

The Carter Center and NDI returned for the 2001 election, noting widespread poll opening delays, and in a few instances, polls did not open at all. The delegation found that Peru had made remarkable progress since the fraudulent election of May 2000. Toledo, who entered the race again, and his opponent, former President Alan Garcia, headed to a runoff. The Center and NDI observed the runoff election, which Toledo won.

Impacts

At the end of his first year in office, President Toledo convened a national dialogue of all political parties and civil society representatives to set a framework for governance. He asked The Carter Center to help assure the dialogue’s success by providing international advisors. On behalf of the Center and its Council of

Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas, former Costa Rica President Rodrigo Carazo advised the national dialogue and visited Peru on three occasions to participate in the process, which resulted in a consensus document.

This project ended in 2001.

Peruvian election officials called for a runoff on May 28 since neither presidential candidate received 50% of the vote. Because fundamental flaws were not rectified and Toledo withdrew from the runoff, the Center and NDI declined to observe the runoff.

Impacts

After the fraudulent May runoff, President Carter and other leaders called on the Organization of American States to send a special mission to develop remedies to the legitimacy crisis, which the OAS did. The Center and NDI returned in July 2000 to meet with Peruvian political and civic groups, though Fujimori’s government declined offers to meet with the delegation.

This project ended in 2000.

How It Started

Elected in 1990, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori amended the constitution so he could run for a second five-year term. During a 1992 coup against him, he shut down the Congress and Supreme Court, replacing them with a legislature and judiciary that leaned in his favor. When he decided to run for a third term, three judges said such a move would be unconstitutional, so he dismissed them. The Carter Center and others in the international community became increasingly concerned as developments unfolded.

Our Work and Methods

The Carter Center partnered with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) to observe Peru’s 2000 presidential election. Citing numerous issues that had done irreparable damage to the electoral process, the Center and NDI asked President Fujimori to postpone the elections, but he declined. The Center and NDI sent a small mission to observe voting on April 9. Among the many flaws seen: premarked ballots in favor of Fujimori; ballots that did not list opponent Alejandro Toledo; attempted intimidation by police and the military; inexplicable delays in the vote-computing process; and in a significant number of polling stations, more ballots cast than the number of voters assigned to the polling site.

Impacts

At the conclusion of the Carter Center’s mission, the team called for shortening President Fujimori’s term and holding new elections. Fujimori agreed to shorten his term, called for new elections in 2001, and announced he would not be a candidate. He later fled the country amid a corruption scandal and, from exile in Japan, resigned the presidency.

This project ended in 2000.

How It Started

In 2010, The Carter Center and International IDEA began a dialogue forum among five Andean countries – Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia – and the U.S., aiming to increase collaboration between civil society and governments.

Our Work and Methods

• Over 18 months, the forum brought together groups of influential citizens from a variety of sectors in each country.
• The purpose of the dialogue sessions was to:
  • Identify a common agenda for the six countries.
  • Address misperceptions and misunderstandings between countries.
  • Propose innovative solutions to problematic issues.
  • Explore the possibility of bilateral dialogues between pairs of countries with tense relations within the forum.

Impacts

• Members of the Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum met four times, in Atlanta, Lima, Washington, and again in Lima.
• Ultimately, the forum provided crucial support and reinforcement of diplomatic efforts through a civil society process.