Peruvian Archbishop prompts national debate on debt campaign

The new Peruvian archbishop, Archbishop Cipriani, provoked a storm of debate after publicly stating in a meeting with President Fujimori in mid February, that the Pope did not support the Jubilee 2000 petition campaign. After interventions by several bishops in the Press as well as the Episcopal conference, he backed down and accepted that the Church was taking a leading role on the issue.

The archbishop's comments follow on from President Fujimori's criticism of the Jubilee 2000 campaign. He said that calling for debt cancellation risked economic and political isolation of Peru. Archbishop Cipriani stated that the church did not know anything about economics and should not get involved in the campaign.

Laura Vargas, Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Social Action (CEAS) responded immediately by publishing a series of extracts of documents issued by the Pope demonstrating his support for debt cancellation. Several high-ranking bishops backed her comments and reaffirmed the churches' commitment to the campaign.

The debate was swiftly followed in the national press by publicity on Bono and Muhammad Ali's backing of the campaign.

The churches in Peru have taken a lead on the Jubilee 2000 campaign. They have distributed thousands of petitions and intend to collect at least 500,000 signatures in support of their appeal for a reduction in foreign debt which currently stands at $29.2 billion according to the Peruvian Central Reserve Bank. They have also distributed a four minute song appealing for debt reduction to all the local radio stations. The song entitled “Life before debt” is sung by a Honduran artist Guillermo Anderson and was launched at the Latin American Jubilee 2000 conference in Tegulcigalpa in January 1999.

Only a few months ago, the Latin American Episcopal Conference (LAEC) declared the failure of international financial institutions to condemn the continuing payment of debt service by impoverished countries as “the sin of usury”. LAEC berated the high levels of debt paid by developing countries to the detriment of social welfare programmes and development.