A deluge of international visitors from around 60 delegations from EU member states and Latin American countries are about to descend on Peru for the fifth European Union-Latin America and Caribbean (EU-LAC) Summit on 16 and 17 of May 2008, followed in November by a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group (APEC). Anticipation on the streets of Lima is evident as the avenues of San Borjas are spruced up and hotel prices rocket.

Ricardo Vega Llona, the President of the EU-LAC Summit High Level Commission, has been touring foreign capitals, including the UK, with the message “we want to show Peru to the world not only from a political point of view, but also from a social and human point of view”. But in the wake of recent violent protest, and with all eyes on Peru, will discontented sectors of society use the summits as a means to highlight their cause?

A poll conducted in March by the Catholic University gave President Alan García an approval rating of 33 percent, a further slide of six points since February. Widespread unhappiness among Peruvians with the García government has centred around opposition to the controversial Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States and government inaction over reconstruction efforts following last year’s devastating earthquake on the coast. The proposed free trade agreement with the EU bloc will no doubt also be placed under the spotlight. Fuelling the growing unrest is the fact that more than half of the population continue to live in abject poverty despite annual growth rates of close to 10 percent – with recent rises in prices of basic foodstuff adding insult to injury. This resentment boiled over into deadly confrontation in February between police and farmers in Ayacucho when four campesinos were shot dead.

This incident, combined with widespread protests, has ratcheted up hostilities between central government and social forces in Peru. García’s strident defence of police actions has contrasted starkly with calls by opposition parties and grassroots organisations for the resignation of Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro and for a law on the use of force to be revoked. Concern over bad publicity arising from unrest and the possibility of protesters preventing access to the airport has led to a range of measures intended to stage-manage the summits: Cusco authorities have been told that recent protests there over a new tourism law mean that they are unlikely to act as one of the host cities for meetings held in the run up to the APEC summit, thousands of police officers have been specially drafted in, and the dates of the meetings declared national holidays.

An ‘Alternative Summit’ organised by a network of civil society organisations from Latin America and Europe will be held in Lima at the same time as the EU-LAC summit, covering issues of inclusion of marginalized communities and the actions of European transnational companies operating in Latin America. The recent arrest of seven individuals, alleged to be members of a radical leftist coalition based in Venezuela linked to the FARC and accused of planning actions against the summit meetings, may foreshadow a more aggressive stance toward anti-summit mobilisation by the government and security forces. Furthermore, the leader of Peru’s Nationalist Party, Ollanta Humala, has given his support to a self-styled ‘People’s Social Summit’ to also coincide with the EU-LAC meeting. Alan García has stated that it will be necessary to demonstrate ‘results’ to the Peruvian people in the run-up to the May meeting – the political stakes appear to be climbing ever higher.