Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Peru opposition leaders call coup 'plot' a hoax Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:03:26 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Peru opposition leaders call coup 'plot' a hoax \BY Alex Emery \CR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT LIMA, Peru LIMA, Peru - Shining Path guerrillas detonated two bombs in the capital yesterday, wounding 10 persons in the rebels' largest attack since their leader was arrested two months ago. More leaders of opposition parties, meanwhile, expressed skepticism about President Alberto Fujimori's claim that at least three retired army generals and a few active-duty officers had tried to oust him in a coup last week. Some opposition groups said Mr. Fujimori may have pulled a hoax to help his candidates in Constituent Assembly elections on Nov. 22. Mr. Fujimori said in a television interview that he has ordered three active-duty generals, including the army's second-in-command, Gen. Jose Valdivia, freed from house arrest. He said an investigation cleared them of involvement in the coup. About 25 active and retired army officers have been arrested. Mr. Fujimori said the plotters intended to assassinate him Friday and postpone the assembly elections for a year. The 80-seat assembly will replace the Congress Mr. Fujimori dissolved in April and sit until general elections in 1995. It also will write a new constitution. Polls show candidates from Mr. Fujimori's Change 90-New Majority coalition receiving about half the seats, and several opposition leaders have accused the president of inventing the coup plot to win voters' sympathy so his candidates could win a majority. "It's a farce, a mockery to boost Fujimori's standings on the eve of the elections," Jorge Del Castillo, a member of the dissolved Congress, said Saturday. His Aprista party, Peru's main opposition party, is boycotting the elections, claiming they will only legitimize Mr. Fujimori's dictatorship. Mr. Fujimori dissolved Congress and the judiciary and set up one-man rule because he said government corruption was blocking his efforts to fight the Shining Path and drug traffickers. Joining the Aprista in expressing doubt about the coup plot were leaders of the centrist Solidarity and Democracy Party, the conservative Popular Christian Party and the centrist Democratic Coordinator Movement. "I don't believe there was a coup d'etat going on, nor does it justify the enormous propaganda apparatus being mounted to confuse public opinion eight days before elections," said Manuel Moreyra, head of the Solidarity and Democracy party. Investigators of the capital bombings, meanwhile, said that Maoist rebels had left leaflets at the bombing sites urging people to boycott the elections. The Shining Path has tried to sabotage elections since it took up arms in 1980 to seize power. Guerrilla violence has continued unabated in the countryside since Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman was arrested in mid-September and sentenced to life in prison. The bombings were the first major attacks in the capital since then. The two bombs exploded almost simultaneously yesterday morning. A 660-pound car bomb parked outside the police academy in Lima's Chorrillos district could be heard 10 miles away. It wounded 10 persons, including four children, and shattered windows. The second bomb destroyed a gas station in the lower-income district of San Juan de Lurigancho, but the gasoline stored there did not catch fire. No injuries were reported in that blast. The police said they deactivated a car bomb in the lower-income district of San Martin de Porres. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM