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Why build sewers when you can design a sculpture park?

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 19, 2006

HUAYRE, Peru - When Peruvian officials set out to spread the wealth, they probably didn't mean mayors should build extravagant town halls and heated swimming pools.

And they almost certainly didn't expect this wind-swept hamlet high on the Andean plateau to spend its windfall on an erotic sculpture park.

The sexually explicit creations in this isolated village 100 miles from the capital have become the focus of a furor over public spending that is dominating today's local elections across the nation.

The original idea was to increase revenue-sharing from surging prices for gold, copper, zinc and other minerals, and indeed, municipalities in the mountains and jungles have seen their income from taxes on mining rise more than 1,000 percent in recent years, to nearly $1-billion this year.

But extravagances prompted by the cash bonanza have raised fears of a voter backlash that will elect leaders from outside the established political system.

People in Huayre are bemused by the uproar. National rulers, they figure, have been squandering their riches for centuries, so what's the big deal if Mayor Wenceslao Alderete hoped to attract tourists by gracing the village plaza with outsized images of genitalia and of the maca root, a tuber traditionally consumed as an aphrodisiac?

The federal government had hoped for more attention to priorities in communities like Huayre, which still lacks paved streets or a sewage system - typical among Andean towns in a country where half the population lives on less than $2 a day.

Alderete, an independent who is not running for re-election, said he's aware that his $158,000 park is being skewered in the media as typical of towns that are misspending their money.

But he said it's the job of the regional government, not the mayor's office, to build infrastructure such as sewer systems so that people don't have to rely on outdoor toilets.

Long governed by strong central regimes, Peru created autonomous regional governments and gave them more revenue following the 2001 ouster of Alberto Fujimori's corruption-ridden administration.

But many local officials have yet to learn how to handle the newfound power and cash, said Eduardo Ballon, a senior analyst at Peru's Desco think tank.

"There is a wealth of deep-seated problems that cannot be hidden, one of which has to do with the lack of training at the local government level and the limitations for fulfilling functions and duties," he said.

Analysts predict that President Alan Garcia's center-left Aprista party, the big winner in 2002 regional elections, will lose ground today to independents.

[Last modified November 19, 2006, 02:10:51]