Peru tightens control over NGOs

Dan Collyns
BBC News, Lima

President Garcia says the law will ensure transparency for NGOs

The Peruvian Congress has approved a law to tighten control over non-governmental organisations.

All funding and donations for NGOs operating in Peru will now have to be registered with a government agency.

The government says the move is for the sake of transparency. Critics say it is undemocratic and authoritarian.

Even before its approval by a second vote in Peru's Congress, the proposal to supervise not-for-profit organisations had provoked controversy.

The new government of President Alan Garcia said NGOs received around five-hundred-million dollars in public and private funds last year and the new law is necessary to ensure transparency.

All NGOs will now have to register any money they receive from outside the country and declare precisely what it will be funding in Peru.

The government says that the measure will prioritise projects in line with major national objectives.

But the suggestion that NGOs should have to comply with national objectives has prompted suspicion and accusations of creeping authoritarianism.

NGOs blamed

There are more than 3,000 NGOs operating in Peru. Those working with the environment and human rights feel particularly threatened by the new law.

They say they often come into conflict with the government through their work and tighter controls will compromise their independence and effectiveness.

Some opposition politicians have described the law as a return to the authoritarianism of Alberto Fujimori's presidency during the 1990s.

One newspaper made unfavourable comparisons with the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, who is imposing similar measures on NGOs.

Last month, Mr Garcia accused some NGOs of trying to hold back investment in the country.

His remarks were made at the height of a 10-day blockade of oil wells by indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.

NGOs were blamed for inflaming the situation, which ended in a mutual agreement but cost the government and the oil company, Pluspetrol, millions of dollars in revenue.