IMAGES from the grounds of the Japanese ambassador's residence of soldiers enthusiastically saluting the delighted President Alberto Fujimori and the lusty singing of the Pertivian national anthem yesterday gave a much needed boost to the fast fading fortunes of the Peruvian head of state.
The military had successfully stormed the residency where 70 captives had been held since December 17th by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). The comparatively low number of casualties among the hostages enhanced the president's prestige.
He had consistently refused through the months of the hostage-taking either to give in to MRTA demands for the release of about 400 jailed members of their movement or to rule out the use of force to free the guerrillas'
remaining captives.
The president will see his popularity recover from the steep slide of public confidence in his political skills which had gone from 66 per cent of those polled in January to 28 per cent this month.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, who last night stated that Mr Fujimori had not informed him of the move, seemed relieved at a resolution of a problem which he and his colleagues would have liked solved with liberal doses of cash in the first days after the MRTA coup de main.
The rebels, under the leadership of Nestor Cerpa, took over the ambassador's residence bypassing themselves off as waiters at a diplomatic cocktail party. They are now all dead, shot by the troops sent in by the president.
Those involved in anti-government action of all sorts are likely to fear a recrudescence of tough action in all parts of the country by the victorious forces of the state which took place after the replacement this month of the defence minister and the chief of police. The police chief, Gen Ketin Vidal, who had earlier won his spurs by trapping Comrade Gonzalo, leader of the Shining Path, found himself unequal to the task of getting the hostages of the MRTA freed.
MRTA's failure to stage a successful comeback after its daring throw of the dice in the Japanese residence will confirm the opinion of those few survivors of the much more cruel and hard line Leninist guerrilla movement of the Sendero Luminosa (Shining Path) that nothing but extreme brutality is in order for an armed subversive organisation.
Peruvian public opinion, as I noted during a visit to Peru this month, was nevertheless in its vast majority totally opposed to the use of armed force for the overthrow of the Peruvian political system and the economic structure it supports.
President Fujimori is likely to take further measures to stimulate a flagging economy and thus generate more jobs and wealth creation to allow him to claim a business success to stand alongside the clear outcome of his firm negotiating stand against the demands of Cerpa and his small band of comrades in the MRTA.
The credit squeeze, which halted the growth of 7 per cent in the economy experienced in 1995 and brought to a shudder last year is likely to be scrapped.
Foreign investors who are beginning to look more benignly on Peru will be pleased with the economic outfall of the military action in Lima yesterday.
Reuter adds:
In response to the end of the Lima hostage crisis, the United States said guerrillas laying, siege to the Japanese ambassador's residence bore full responsibility for the storming of the building by Peruvian troops.
The State Department spokes-man, Mr Nicholas Burns, stopped short of directly applauding the decision to send in the troops, but said Washington would not "second-guess" the Peruvian government on the issue.
"One thing is clear the MRTA bears the full and complete responsibility for this outcome" Mr Burns said in a statement. Asked if Peruvian authorities had made the right decision, he said. "We are not going to second-guess the Peruvian government."
Mr Burns said the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright planned to write last night to the Peruvian Foreign Minister, Mr Francisco Tudela, one of the hostages, "congratulating him on his rescue".
Mr Burns said the United States, which throughout the crisis had urged that no concessions should be made to "terrorists" had not known in advance about the storming and had played no role in it or given any advice.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Hashimoto, said this morning he was not aware that Peruvian troops would storm the Lima residence but he thanked the Peruvian government for the operation.
"We unfortunately were not told of the operation before the move. I regret this, but we thank the Peruvian authorities for seizing the chance," Mr Hashimoto said.
"We were truly hoping for a peaceful solution, but that is a notion of someone who is far away at a place where there is a 14-hour time difference.
"How can anyone criticise President Fujimori? It is not important whether we had prior knowledge of the move. The important thing is that the hostages were freed. Some are injured but all Japanese hostages have been rescued."
Mr Hashimoto added he had talked to Japanese ambassador to Peru Mr Morihisa Aoki, one of the freed hostages, on the telephone.