The Peruvian President, Mr Alberto Fujimori, has started a campaign to legitimise his recent electoral victory, announcing the setting up of a state commission "to study the reforms and corrections" required by Peru's "imperfect" democracy.
The commission will include Mr Francisco Tudela, elected vice-president, and Mr Alberto Bustamante, currently head of Mr Fujimori's cabinet. The commission is expected to restructure judicial and electoral authorities, which have acted as rubber stamps to the president's quest for a third term in office despite a constitutional ban.
Mr Fujimori defied the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH), which re commended fresh elections at this weekend's general assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS), held in Windsor, Canada. The meeting opened with a letter from the former US president Mr Jimmy Carter, who called on the 34-member OAS assembly to reject the Peruvian result.
"This was not a democratic election" Mr Carter said, recommending that an OAS delegation return urgently to Peru to seek ways of restoring democratic rule.
Peru's National Electoral Council formally declared Mr Fujimori the winner of the elections on Sunday, just hours ahead of the OAS meeting, in a move calculated to make the electoral process irreversible.
"We presidents agreed that elections were held and as a result a president was elected," said President Cardoso of Brazil, speaking for his Chilean and Argentinian counterparts, on the eve of the OAS assembly.
The likely final text from the OAS assembly will contain a call to send a further mission to Peru but without condemning the irregularities observed during the election process.
Peru's business community is divided over the current impasse with the Private Business Confederation recognising the result and rejecting all measures which might affect investment in the country.
"We're not going to convince foreign investors to come here by lying to them," countered Mr Carlos Castro, president of Peru's Association of Exporters.
President Fujimori rejected the testimony of seven newly-elected deputies who claimed they were offered huge bribes to back his parliamentary bloc, which is several votes short of the majority required to ratify the president in July. "What happened was that our proposals probably proved more attractive than those of other political groups," he said, anticipating shifts in loyalty among opposition deputies.
Peru's investigative weekly Caretas yesterday published news of Mr Fujimori's attempt to retain army loyalty, rewarding troops with free cars and petrol.
In an effort to hold on to 22 loyal generals approaching retirement, he is planning to rush through an army service reform law through congress, which sits until June 15th, to extend the length of service by five years. The move would allow him to see out his third mandate with a loyal army hierarchy.
A leaked report suggested that Mr Fujimori wanted to send troops into the streets after the first round of voting, on April 9th, to suppress street protests. The order was cancelled when a group of generals warned him that they could not guarantee the obedience of junior officers.
The Peruvian military closely watched recent events in Ecuador, where a popular civilian-military group briefly seized power.
The defeated candidate, Mr Alejandro Toledo, continued to address huge rallies across the country, building up momentum to the mass protest aimed at physically preventing Mr Fujimori from assuming office on July 28th.