VARGAS LLOSA: There is an incredible freedom. The most radical change has been the opening of the press. Six months ago people were still extremely afraid, but now everybody’s talking–as it should be.
We have a very long tradition of totalitarian regimes and we know exactly what happens–human-rights abuses, rigged elections and corruption. But I must confess, I never thought that the corruption would reach these dimensions.
No. When it was quite obvious that he was implicated in such scandals–corruptions, killings, disappearances–he had no alternative but to escape. And he had the very fortunate possibility to reclaim his Japanese nationality, and now he’s very well protected there–and a rich man.
Well, I would have controlled the military in order to demonstrate that the democratic government had moral superiority over [those] who were killing, destroying, kidnapping people… The government became a terrorist government exactly like Shining Path.
Yes. This is for me the saddest aspect of what has happened. In the late 1980s we did, I think, try to make it understood that it was not possible to develop Peru without opening the economy, privatizing the public sector and creating a very attractive environment for investment. Although this was adopted by the government, at the same time it was discredited by the kind of mafia deals that were done with the complicity of privileged entrepreneurs and businessmen, distorting the principle of free markets and real competition.
That will take time, you know? What we need now is honest people. Not only in the government but also in the judiciary. There is such mistrust in everything.
I hope so. Because my impression is, well, first that he won in April and that that election was stolen by the regime. But I think a more important reason to support Toledo is that if there is a chance in Peru for market policies, it’s something that will come not from above, but from the popular base of society. And I think this is what Toledo represents: he’s an Indian who was born in the slums. He believes in private enterprise and at the same time he’s deeply committed to social reforms, because he knows that the major problems in a country like Peru are poverty, discrimination and lack of opportunities for poor people.
It was very sad. I was considered a traitor because I attacked the government and said it was a dictatorship. And of coursethe regime used all this against me. I remember I was insulted in the street.
Yes, now people are friendly and kind.
I think this is a good description. I was not repelled by my country, but I was repelled by what was happening in those years. I’ll always have a very difficult relationship with my country, which I think is quite normal with writers.
