Peruvian government gives in to pressure from right.

AutorJana, Elsa Chanduvi

The Peruvian government's interest in acquiring the assets that the Spanish transnational oil company Repsol was selling in Peru, which included La Pampilla refinery, a network of more than 200 service stations, and a gas bottling plant, brought a heated reaction from rightest parties and media as well as business leaders who saw the move as a statist threat to the economy.

On April 22, President Ollanta Humala met in the government palace in Lima with Spaniard Antonio Brufau, Repsol president and CEO. The next day, national newspapers reported the beginning of negotiations for the government to acquire Repsol.

The news unleashed a major controversy between opposition sectors that consider the state a bad entrepreneur and those who see the government initiative as an opportunity to contribute to the country's energy security.

The April 27 approval of the Reglamento for the 2006 Ley de Foralecimiento y Modernizacion de PetroPeru, a measure that grants the state-run oil company the right to develop all hydrocarbon activities in the country, threw more fuel on the fire.

The enabling regulation says that PetroPeru can be involved in all phases of the industry and sale of oil from exploration to production, including its derivatives, basic and intermediary petrochemicals, and any other form of energy.

Opponents allege Humala's "statist" plans

In statements to the press, Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA) lawmaker Mauricio Mulder called the regulation unconstitutional, saying that it excludes the state-run company "from public control." He said, "It privatizes PetroPeru" with public money, and "now it will be beyond the control of the Contraloria General de la Republica (CG), Congress, and even the Ministerio Publico."

Alfonso Garcia Miro, president of the business chamber Confederacion Nacional de Instituciones Empresariales Privadas (CONFIEP), said the government's interest in acquiring Repsol's assets shows "the political decision to interfere in a market where private enterprise works. It is clear to me that this will be the beginning of a transformation of Peru into a domineering, arrogant, authoritarian state, as in Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Argentina. But we Peruvians will defend ourselves against this great threat."

Many echoed Garcia Miro's statements, saying that the government had begun to turn toward the "Gran Transformation," Humala's initial government plan that envisioned taking back the country's strategic...

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