World Notes PERU

After handily defeating celebrity novelist Mario Vargas Llosa in last week's presidential runoff, Alberto Fujimori made it clear that he has no intention of administering strong medicine to Peru's exhausted economy. The bespectacled former university professor reaffirmed his campaign promise that he would avoid "shock" therapy that might hurt the poor.

Instead, Fujimori, 51, is visiting the U.S., Canada and Europe to seek aid for an economy that he acknowledges is "close to death," with an inflation rate of nearly 2,500% and a $17 billion foreign debt. Other nations have an incentive to help: some $600 million to $1.2 billion in coca leaves are exported from Peru each year, feeding the world's cocaine cartels. Fujimori cannot hope to combat the drug problem if Peru sinks into political and economic chaos. The U.S. Congress has approved $35.9 million to equip Peruvian soldiers to fight guerrillas and cocaine merchants. But Fujimori wants to renegotiate, saying that the U.S. should pay to build roads and provide assistance for alternate crops.