PERU EX-PRESIDENT, TRAILING, LINKS ELECTION FOE TO COCAINE USE

LIMA, Peru, May 20 - Facing an uphill battle to regain the
presidency, former President Alan Garcia has tied his opponent,
Alejandro Toledo, to the use of cocaine.

In a televised debate on Saturday night, Mr. Garcia said: "Nobody has
ever charged me with consuming cocaine. A consumer of cocaine cannot
be the leader of a country."

He a was referring to published reports that Mr. Toledo, a former
business professor and World Bank official, had tested positive for
cocaine during a hospital visit in 1998 on the same day he was
reportedly consorting with three women.

In the past, Mr. Toledo said he had been kidnapped by intelligence
agents working for Alberto K. Fujimori, who was president then, in an
effort to embarrass him. But during the debate, Mr. Toledo did not
respond to Mr. Garcia's attack.

For most of the debate, the two candidates agreed on many issues.
They both said they would raise teacher salaries, promote tourism,
give more financing to local governments and encourage foreign
investment. Both said their primary goal was to create jobs in a
country where unemployment and underemployment approach half the work
force.

But during the hour-and-a-half debate, some sparks flew.

Mr. Toledo, who led the opposition against Mr. Fujimori and dropped
out of an election campaign roundly considered fraudulent last year,
attacked Mr. Garcia for the record of his 1985-90 term in office,
which is widely remembered for corruption, hyperinflation, terrorism,
army massacres and food rationing.

"Let me remind you," Mr. Toledo said, addressing Mr. Garcia, "that
during your 1985-1990 government you left one million workers in the
street. How can you say jobs are now your central objective?"

After Mr. Garcia attacked him on the cocaine matter, Mr. Toledo
recalled that 2,600 people disappeared during Mr. Garcia's term as
the government struggled against two terrorist groups.

"Mr. Garcia, it is inconceivable that you speak of human rights, the
struggle against corruption and against narcotics trafficking when
you have pending legal charges," Mr. Toledo said.

Mr. Garcia went into exile in 1992 to escape charges that he said
were the product of President Fujimori's manipulation of the judicial
system. The Supreme Court has since dismissed the charges, although
his opponents have sought to bring new corruption complaints against
him.

Mr. Fujimori fled to Japan and resigned late last year to escape
charges arising from a number of corruption scandals. The Congress
appointed Valentin Paniagua, one of its members, to serve as interim
president until an elected president is inaugurated on July 28.

Most political experts said the debate between Mr. Garcia and Mr.
Toledo was a stalemate and would not decide the outcome of the
election. A poll published in the newspaper El Comercio on Saturday
showed Mr. Toledo with a sizable 61-to-39 percent lead over Mr.
Garcia among voters ready to cast ballots.

But the poll, taken by Datum Internacional, said 31 percent of the
2,000 voters surveyed said they intended to leave their ballots blank
or spoil them to show their displeasure with both candidates. The
poll had a margin of error of 2.2 percent.

"If the polls are right, Garcia needed a knockout punch, and he
didn't get it," Enrique Zileri, editor of the political magazine
Caretas, said after the debate. But he and other experts said the
debate signaled that the final weeks of the campaign would probably
be very dirty.

The second-round runoff is expected on June 3, but may be delayed
because of technical complications arising from delays in the final
vote count of the first round in April.

Signaling that he would press the drug issue, Mr. Garcia said in a
news conference after the debate, "A president who takes cocaine is a
bad example for youth." Referring to Mr. Toledo, he added, "That's
something he didn't address."