-Caveat Lector- Alan Garcia Re-Enters Peru Politics Updated 12:16 PM ET January 14, 2001 ... (AP) By RICK VECCHIO, Associated Press Writer LIMA, Peru (AP) - At the dingy party headquarters, sooty from traffic fumes pouring through the windows, the sign says "Bread with liberty!" and a new vigor seems to flow among the militant faithful, now lapsing into middle age. Alan Garcia, Peru's former president and object of their reverence, has announced he is coming back from exile to try to recapture his old job in elections April 8. "He has acknowledged the failures of his first government," said Tito Paredes, 50, one of the self-described "active militants" who hang out at Aprista party headquarters in Lima's working-class district of Brena. "I believe he has more experience now, and if elected president he will assure the country's destiny." Whether the rest of Peru agrees is questionable. Some may still revere Garcia as the fiery young populist who defied the Western bankers during his 1985-90 presidency. Many others remember his term for its food shortages, corruption, terrorist attacks by the Maoist-inspired Shining Path movement and inflation that roared above 7,650 percent in 1990. Garcia fled to Colombia nine years ago, one step ahead of troops sent by President Alberto Fujimori to arrest him. Garcia says he will return to Peru by Jan. 20. His entry into the race is the latest twist in Peru's turbulent break from Fujimori, who fled to his ancestral homeland, Japan, in November, his autocratic regime collapsing under mounting corruption scandals. The strong favorite is Alejandro Toledo, a U.S.-trained economist who lost to Fujimori last year in an election riddled with irregularities and fraud allegations. But many analysts predict he will have a difficult time winning the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff vote. There's no telling at this early stage how Garcia will do. Last year, Fujimori and his supporters tried to saddle Toledo with the Garcia legacy by deriding him as an "Alanista," a play on Garcia's first name. Toledo indignantly rejected the comparison. He says he welcomes Garcia's candidacy, but believes the former president should turn himself in to face outstanding charges of illicit enrichment - charges Garcia denies. For years, Fujimori's iron-fisted rule was tolerated, even lauded, by most Peruvians. They were grateful to him for taming leftist rebel insurgencies that Garcia could not control and cleaning up an economic disaster that resulted from his predecessor's policies. For many, Garcia personifies the bad old days. "It was not good when he was president," said Felicita Nunez, 31, a cook. "We were always in line to buy groceries, or searching for basic items. There was no rice, milk or sugar. If he goes back to being president, it could be like that again ... I think that the terrorism could return." But some political experts are not counting Garcia out. He is backed by a disciplined party that has the mystique of having survived prolonged persecution by military and civilian dictators. Support for Garcia never completely disappeared. Over the years, his name has consistently showed up at the low end of opinion polls. Garcia swept into office in 1985 as Latin America's youngest president at age 36, hailed in Peru as "the president of hope" and abroad as "Latin America's Kennedy." Initially, his policies produced an artificial economic boom, but it fed on massive spending that depleted Peru's reserves. He tried to nationalize the banking system and defiantly limited foreign debt payments to 10 percent of export earnings. Peru became a pariah among multinational lenders, credit dried up and hyperinflation followed. Analysts say the corruption charges against Garcia could be eclipsed in Peruvian minds by the alleged money laundering, influence peddling and illicit arms dealing that stained Fujimori's decade in power. "At this point, the public's memory is weak. People are prone to forget the achievements of Fujimori's administration," said Guillermo Loli, project coordinator at the independent polling firm Apoyo. "At the same time, they could be prone to forget the errors committed by the government that came before Fujimori." "Garcia should come back," said Mario Santos, 46, a coffee exporter who lost his Education Ministry job during layoffs under Fujimori's first administration. "For all of the accusations made against Garcia, the corruption in Fujimori's government was 20 times worse." Some 6 million of Peru's nearly 15 million voters were too young to vote when Garcia left power, and many older Peruvians are worried they will be seduced by Garcia's eloquence. "Alan Garcia is a snake charmer," political scientist Fernando Rospigliosi said. "One has to look not at his words, what he says, what he promises, but at what he did. What he did was form a corrupt and incompetent government and make a disaster of the country. Garcia cannot change those facts." Garcia is 51 now, still tall and dark-haired but changed, he says, in important ways. He insists he has mellowed politically. He now speaks of trickle-down economics and investment in education, rather than calling for unilateral freezes on foreign debt payments. In an interview with The Associated Press last week in Colombia, Garcia suggested "that God sent me into exile for 10 years to endure incessant blows so that I can mature, so I can learn so I can be more tolerant, so I can be less willful." 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