Lima, Peru – President Alan Garcia apologized to poor Peruvians on Saturday for failing to improve their lives during his first year in office, and vowed new efforts against poverty.
Garcia, one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, has overseen a booming economy, but his popularity has slipped as the poor grow frustrated at being left out of the bonanza.
“I would have loved to do a lot more,” Garcia said in his nationally broadcast state of the nation address to Congress, acknowledging that his government had not worked fast enough to help the poorest Peruvians.
He said increased public investment will “change the social face of Peru” by slashing the poverty rate to 30 percent from 44 percent now, and said the government would build housing for 1.2 million Peruvians by the time his term ends in 2011.
When he took office, Garcia was eager to redeem himself after a disastrous first government in the 1980s that left Peru mired in hyperinflation and nearly bankrupt.
High metal prices helped Peru’s economy grow 8 percent in 2006, the eighth consecutive year of expansion for the Andean nation, and Garcia has pushed forward with his market-friendly agenda.
But this month, peasant farmers, unionists and teachers took to the streets in sometimes violent protests, blocking roads and closing airports to press for a better distribution of wealth.
Resentment toward Garcia, 58, is most visible in rural highland regions such as Huancavelica, where nearly 90 percent of the people are poor.
“They’re not making us a priority,” said Jorge Quinto Palomares, a regional government official. “The Huancavelica hospital is the only one in the region. The equipment is more than 50 years old.”
