for God! "my" Patria! & the coca growers!

international | history and heritage | news report

Tuesday July 25, 2006 20:19

by iosaf

Today those elected to the Peruvian government earlier this year to serve till 2011 must each swear an oath of allegiance. Its part of a series of constitutional rituals which will lead up to the presidential inauguration this coming Friday which is also Peru's national day.

The formula for the oath is very simple - (they often are) - each deputy takes his place in turn & recorded by stenographers and pictured on live TV recites the formula of loyalty. But already some deputies oaths have been rejected :-

The options are . por Díos! = for God! or "for Patria!" or )and this is curious) the names of the founders of the Peruvian democratic political parties. That curiousity arose from a previous all party agreement between party whips who realise many people don't believe in the same God anymore or like to put an ethnic twist in their Patria. But what has now become an issue of certain resonance is "who founds an independent deputy's party"?

Whatever one calls the Peruvian equivalent of "ceann comhairle" or "speaker of the house" has insisted that several deputies have not sworn a proper oath and thus recalled them or else they won't be allowed take their seats. This abstentionist fate also faces one deputy who thought to skip the whole ritual. Martha Acosta Zárate was elected as a nationalist (some say ultra-nationalist) candidate for one of the indiginous regions. {quite conceivably her God and her Patria are different}. But unlike the Northern Ireland assembly, if the Peruvian deputies don't sit because of some divine or national indentity problem - they won't get paid or any office space. "crunch time for the stationery".

One other deputy Cajahuanca Rosales is now causing polemic having sworn (the second time) "por Dios, la Patria, los cocaleros, agricultoras y en contra de quienes traicionan los intereses del pueblo".
Which translates as "for God, Patria, the coca farmers, and agricultural workers and against those who betray the interests of the people".

At the moment this "oath of allegiance" business in teh young Andean democracy doesn't look like sparking a civil war such as it did in the Irish Free State's time. On the contrary most young Peruvians (who tipped me off about this real time story) think its all a bit funny.

& why?

Simply because oaths are undervalued. How many times have people sworn allegiance? sworn to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? to defend liberty?

polemic in Peru:
http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/EdicionOnline/Html/200....html