LIMA : Jockeying for Position

Members of the dissolved Peruvian Congress plan to install Vice President Maximo San Roman as head of a rival government today in defiance of President Alberto Fujimori’s move earlier this month to suspend the constitution.

The move comes as a visiting commission headed by Joao Baena Soares, secretary general of the Organization of American States, tries to promote a political dialogue that would return the country to full democracy.

Fujimori, who is backed by the military, is expected this week to announce a timetable for reforming Congress and the judiciary, which he shut down April 5 claiming that corruption, inefficiency and irresponsibility among lawmakers and judges were making it impossible for him to salvage Peru’s economy while simultaneously fighting drug traffickers and leftist guerrillas.