Peru's Interim President Is Sworn In

The head of Peru's opposition-led Congress was sworn in Wednesday as interim president, sweeping away the last vestiges of a decade of autocratic rule by deposed President Alberto Fujimori.

Cheering opposition leaders sang the national anthem as Valentin Paniagua, a political moderate from a centrist party who was the consensus candidate to guide Peru's transition, took his oath in a congressional ceremony that capped a two-month-old political crisis.

Paniagua, 64, was elected Congress president six days ago, marking the end of Fujimori's eight-year domination of the legislature. New elections are scheduled for April 8.

Fujimori, whose iron grip on power was broken by a corruption scandal around his fugitive ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, went to Japan on Friday before announcing that he would resign.

Opposition lawmakers ignored his resignation and instead pushed through a vote Tuesday to "vacate" the presidency, ousting the leader on constitutional grounds of "moral incapacity."

Paniagua's oath-taking followed a legislative session Wednesday in which lawmakers raucously chanted "the dictatorship has fallen!" That came after lawmakers voted to accept the resignation of Fujimori's second vice president, Ricardo Marquez.

It was a second day of frenzied activity by an emboldened Peruvian opposition force that wrested control of Congress away from Fujimori's allies last week, triggering his downfall.

"This is a triumph for Latin American democracy! Peru has put itself in the vanguard in the fight against dictatorships," declared opposition Congressman Daniel Estrada.

Though a political humiliation for the once-powerful leader, the move did nothing to alter the course of presidential succession since Fujimori's trip amid a mounting corruption scandal.

Inaugurated to an unprecedented third term last July after a deeply flawed election, Fujimori found his rule weakened by the corruption scandal that he could not control.

The legislative action signaled a reawakening of Peruvian democracy after years of Fujimori domination of Congress, the courts and most of Peruvian society from the bully pulpit of an all-powerful presidency, his shadowy spy chief working behind the scenes.

"I am happy, and many Peruvians must be overjoyed ... knowing that Fujimori's dictatorship has fallen, fallen under the weight of its own corruption," said Congressman Jorge del Castillo of the left-leaning Aprista party.

Fujimori's supporters in Congress cried foul.

"This is pure vengeance, this act of declaring him morally unfit!" shouted Congresswoman Carmen Lozada. "Fujimori isn't going to go down in history for sending a letter from Tokyo, but for waging the fight against terrorism, building highways and combatting hyperinflation."

Long accustomed to having his edicts rubber-stamped by pliant followers, Fujimori admitted Monday that the new mkeup in Congress was a key factor in his decision to resign.

Ten years ago, Fujimori swept into office in a stunning election upset. A son of Japanese immigrants, he won praise after he crippled leftist insurgencies, eliminated 7,000 percent inflation, and struck peace with Ecuador after a decades-old border dispute sparked a 1995 war.

But lingering poverty, weariness with his autocratic ways and his inability to convince Peruvians that he knew nothing about Montesinos' reputedly vast network of corruption including alleged money laundering, narcotics trafficking and arms dealing finally brought him down.

The 62-year-old Fujimori, who had declared a war on corruption when he took office in 1990, has denied having bank accounts abroad.

With majority control, an emboldened opposition now has the means to set up committees to investigate accusations of misdeeds something it couldn't do for years.

Congressman Absalon Vazquez, a self-described Fujimori "foot soldier," took a long view on the legislative vote Tuesday and said opposition lawmakers were conveniently overlooking the authoritarian leader's accomplishments.

Fujimori is widely credited with bringing Peru back from the brink of collapse in the early 1990s, when leftist guerrillas killed peasants and police and terrorized Peruvians with frequent assassinations, car bombings and blackouts of whole cities.

"How can anyone forget the deaths and violence?" said Congressman Vazquez. "We made great strides pacifying the terrible scourge of terrorism, but politics has many contradictions."

He concluded: "The people and history will be the better judge" of Fujimori.