Peru President Tells AJC Luncheon: No Place For Ambiguity in Fight Against Terrorism

American Jewish Committee
Sunday, 3 February 2002

The President of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, expressed his government's firm stance against terrorism and support for the U.S. global campaign, as well as Peru's support for Israel, in a major address before the American Jewish Committee.

"In my government we make no concession whatsoever to terrorism, not only in Peru but also around the world. There is no place for ambiguity about this position against terrorism," President Toledo said at a luncheon at AJC Headquarters on Friday.

Referring to the long battle against the Shining Path terror movement in his country, President Toledo said: "Peru has experienced for 25 years the adverse, criminal impact of terrorism. We lost 25,000 lives and we paid over $30 billion for it."

President Toledo spoke in detail about his commitment to improve the lives of the Peruvian people, a commitment rooted in his own upbringing, born into abject poverty in the Andes, and then rising to a successful academic career before being elected president last year.

President Toledo described the economic conditions of his country, noting that per capita income is $2,000, and 54 percent of Peruvians live under the poverty line.

"I'm absolutely convinced that education is the only way to win the battle against poverty," President Toledo said. "And if we win the battle against poverty, we will make substantial progress again terrorism and violence."

He appealed for support in getting the U.S. Congress to pass the Andean Preferential Trade Act, an important tool to combating the narco-trafficking that has direct connection to terrorism. "The Act will enable us to substitute the cultivation of cocoa leaves to cultivate cotton, coffee, other substitute products," said President Toledo. "That will be the most effective way of elimination thousands and thousands of acres of cocoa leaves because it generate jobs."

AJC President Harold Tanner presented President Toledo with a special gift, a glass block inscribed with the quote, "The true aim of government is liberty" by Baruch Spinoza. "That is a very fitting inscription for someone who talked as you did today," said Mr. Tanner.

Added Ambassador Richard Schifter, chair of AJC's International Relations Commission: "We will try to do whatever we can do in support of what you have said because I am absolutely certain that all of us will agree with the goals that you have set."

President Toledo also spoke at length about his admiration for Israel, about his wife who is from Israel, and reminded the luncheon audience that Peru was one of the leading countries signing the UN resolution in 1947 that created the State of Israel.

"I hope Israel will take up my challenge of some people to come to Peru and convert the desert into green fields," said the President.

But he also spoke passionately about the terrorism Israelis are confronting, and expressed hope that his daughter could "go to Israel to see the roots of her mother without being scared. She deserves the right to visit her family in peace."

Mrs. Eliane Karp de Toledo also addressed the luncheon, speaking in detail about her work as First Lady to help alleviate poverty in Peru and preserve the rich and distinctive cultural heritage of Peru.

"I believe a Jewish person who was raised with Jewish ethics as I have been in a traditional Jewish family cannot be indifferent to any forms of intolerance, of injustice, of dictatorship and of human confiscation of rights," said Mrs. Karp.

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