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Arg1996

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<s>[INST] The company also faces several shareholder [/INST] lawsuits alleging fraud and misinformation by Baesa's top officers. </s>

<s>[INST] PepsiCo has no investment [/INST] or board members in Pepsi Puerto Rico. </s>

<s>[INST] Meanwhile, Mr. Suarez's first [/INST] move was to take a major hit. </s>

<s>[INST] Earlier this month, Baesa announced a [/INST] quarterly loss of $250 million, including restructuring charges and write-downs. </s>

<s>[INST] On the news, Baesa's American depositary shares, which are traded on [/INST] the New York exchange, plunged below $5 apiece; they closed yesterday at $4.875, down 25 cents on the day. </s>

<s>[INST] Now, the company has a market [/INST] capitalization of $181 million, down from $1.67 billion at its peak. </s>

<s>[INST] Neither Pepsi nor Baesa is discussing [/INST] their next step, but they will have to act quickly. </s>

<s>[INST] Baesa has already defaulted on $34 million in debt [/INST] payments, and the drop in its stock price has triggered violations of some bond covenants. </s>

<s>[INST] The company has quietly put [/INST] some of its smaller franchises on the market. </s>

<s>[INST] It also has shut down one of [/INST] its new Brazilian plants and laid off more than 1,500 workers. </s>

<s>[INST] A Pepsi spokesman says that Baesa's troubles emerged suddenly at [/INST] the end of last year and that, prior to that, the company was performing well above expectations. </s>

<s>[INST] "We're just starting to [/INST] sort through the situation," Mr. Weatherup says. </s>

<s>[INST] That's clear at Jundiai, a [/INST] small city 50 miles from Sao Paulo. </s>

<s>[INST] One recent afternoon, delivery trucks snaked up to the gate of the [/INST] Coke plant while, at the Baesa plant across the road, two guards stood lazily cradling machine guns and looking bored stiff. </s>

<s>[INST] Workers at the Baesa plant recently received [/INST] a "motivational" warning that unless business improved, they would be laid off. </s>

<s>[INST] ___ Document 69 of 500 Re-Election Fervor Seizes Latin Leaders --- New `Dynasties' [/INST] Could Undermine Democratic Reforms Author: By Matt Moffett Publication info: Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition [New York, N.Y] 28 Aug 1996: A8. </s>

<s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: Mr. Fujimori isn't the only [/INST] Latin American leader drawing criticism for flirting with the temptation of political dynasty-building. </s>

<s>[INST] Just one year into his second term in office, Argentine President [/INST] Carlos Saul Menem is entertaining, if not actively encouraging, proposals that could open the door for a third term. </s>

<s>[INST] In Brazil, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is [/INST] engineering a constitutional change that would give him a second term. </s>

<s>[INST] Ironically, political strongmen are re-emerging at a time when [/INST] the regional economies themselves are proving to be rooted in firmer stuff than individual personalities. </s>

<s>[INST] Consider the surprising aftermath of the [/INST] resignation last month of Argentine Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo. </s>

<s>[INST] Following the Friday afternoon announcement, investors spent an [/INST] edgy weekend contemplating life without "Saint Cavallo," the last of Latin America's free market pioneers. </s>

<s>[INST] But rather than a black Monday stock crash, Argentina enjoyed [/INST] a market rally, sparked by pledges of continuity in policy from the Central Bank official who succeeded Mr. Cavallo. </s>

<s>[INST] Argentina still faces struggles, but Pedro Malan, [/INST] Brazil's finance minister, observed that "institutions no longer depend on people. </s>

<s>[INST] Today, though, the push for third [/INST] terms in Argentina and Peru is anything but a grass-roots phenomenon. </s>

<s>[INST] The first inkling that Mr. Menem's loyalists longed for a presidential hat trick [/INST] came at a political summit soon after last year's election, when banners appeared reading "Menem '99" -- referring to the next presidential election year. </s>

<s>[INST] But only a couple of years after the constitution was rewritten to allow [/INST] Mr. Menem a second stint in office, the president's supporters are combing the law for loopholes that might give him one more shot. </s>

<s>[INST] Jorge Vanussi, an opposition congressman, says the [/INST] re-election provision is "like Mona Lisa's smile, open to every class of interpretation". </s>

<s>[INST] Full text: The first time Alberto Fujimori [/INST] broke the longstanding Latin American taboo against presidential re-election, most Peruvians cheered. </s>

<s>[INST] The former agronomy professor, it was thought, [/INST] had earned the right to a reprise after having whipped terrorism and inflation. </s>

<s>[INST] But last week, when Fujimori loyalists in Congress rammed through a constitutionally dubious [/INST] measure that clears the way for the president to seek a third consecutive term in the year 2000, the public reaction was different. </s>

<s>[INST] "Even some Fujimori supporters are [/INST] saying, `Enough,'" says Peruvian political columnist Luis Jochamowitz. </s>

<s>[INST] Mr. Fujimori isn't the only Latin American [/INST] leader drawing criticism for flirting with the temptation of political dynasty-building. </s>

<s>[INST] Just one year into his second term in office, Argentine President [/INST] Carlos Saul Menem is entertaining, if not actively encouraging, proposals that could open the door for a third term. </s>

<s>[INST] In Brazil, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is [/INST] engineering a constitutional change that would give him a second term. </s>

<s>[INST] While re-election was initially embraced by investors as [/INST] a force for regional stability, it's rapidly turning into a source of worry. </s>

<s>[INST] At bottom, the flurry of re-election bids shows [/INST] that the region's political systems are maturing far less rapidly than its economic systems are. </s>

<s>[INST] Politics in Latin America is still a [/INST] murky world of boss rule, pliant electoral legislation, weak parties and unsophisticated voters. </s>

<s>[INST] "I think it's a very unhealthy trend," says [/INST] Riordan Roett, Latin American chairman of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. </s>

<s>[INST] "What's needed is a process of predictable political [/INST] change involving stable institutions, and that's exactly the opposite of what you see". </s>

<s>[INST] Ironically, political strongmen are re-emerging at a time when [/INST] the regional economies themselves are proving to be rooted in firmer stuff than individual personalities. </s>

<s>[INST] Consider the surprising aftermath of the [/INST] resignation last month of Argentine Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo. </s>

<s>[INST] Following the Friday afternoon announcement, investors spent an [/INST] edgy weekend contemplating life without "Saint Cavallo," the last of Latin America's free market pioneers. </s>

<s>[INST] But rather than a black Monday stock crash, Argentina enjoyed [/INST] a market rally, sparked by pledges of continuity in policy from the Central Bank official who succeeded Mr. Cavallo. </s>

<s>[INST] Argentina still faces struggles, but Pedro Malan, [/INST] Brazil's finance minister, observed that "institutions no longer depend on people. </s>

<s>[INST] Says Mr. Jochamowitz, the Peruvian political writer: "It's amazing [/INST] to be returning to an entirely personalist political style that we thought we had outgrown. </s>

<s>[INST] The archetype of the turn-of-the-century caudillo, or boss, was Mexico's [/INST] Porfirio Diaz, who once granted his dentist a congressional seat as a reward for a particularly deft extraction. </s>

<s>[INST] The heirs of Don Porfirio weren't shunted back into the [/INST] barracks for good until the early 1980s, when the region's newly minted democracies erected constitutional limits on reelection. </s>

<s>[INST] Why, then is a new generation of [/INST] democratically elected leaders displaying the strongman's penchant for perpetuating their reigns? </s>

<s>[INST] Besides the feebleness of the region's [/INST] political structures, the answer may lie in a fluke of timing. </s>

<s>[INST] Last year's presidential races in [/INST] Peru and Argentina, resulting in landslide re-elections for Messrs. </s>

<s>[INST] Fujimori and Menem, occurred against the backdrop of [/INST] the Mexican peso crisis, which vividly reminded voters of the cost of wavering leadership. </s>

<s>[INST] Today, though, the push for third [/INST] terms in Argentina and Peru is anything but a grass-roots phenomenon. </s>

<s>[INST] The first inkling that Mr. Menem's loyalists longed for a presidential hat trick [/INST] came at a political summit soon after last year's election, when banners appeared reading "Menem '99" -- referring to the next presidential election year. </s>

<s>[INST] But only a couple of years after the constitution was rewritten to allow [/INST] Mr. Menem a second stint in office, the president's supporters are combing the law for loopholes that might give him one more shot. </s>

<s>[INST] Jorge Vanussi, an opposition congressman, says the [/INST] re-election provision is "like Mona Lisa's smile, open to every class of interpretation". </s>

<s>[INST] When it comes to artful legislative [/INST] analysis, perhaps no elected body can match Peru's Congress. </s>

<s>[INST] In a bizarre decision last week, the legislature determined that Mr. Fujimori's [/INST] first presidential term didn't count toward the two-term constitutional limit, opening the door for a third run in the year 2000. </s>

<s>[INST] In Brazil, meanwhile, Mr. Cardoso has [/INST] been privately marshaling forces for re-election, while publicly demurring. </s>

<s>[INST] Some analysts say that Mr. [/INST] Cardoso should drop the Prince Hamlet routine. </s>

<s>[INST] A budget-cutting program has been stalled in Congress for a year, partly [/INST] because Mr. Cardoso has been reluctant to twist the legislative arms that he is counting on to cast votes for a re-election amendment. </s>

<s>[INST] A re-election amendment would prove a Pyrrhic victory [/INST] for Mr. Cardoso if it came at the price of an economic collapse. </s>

<s>[INST] "If re-election comes at expense of reforms, I [/INST] don't think of it as positive," says Paulo Leme, an economist at Goldman Sachs. </s>

<s>[INST] Some analysts say that another reason some presidents are so [/INST] intent on staying in power is fear of having their administration's dirty laundry aired after they leave office. </s>

<s>[INST] For instance, several members of [/INST] Mr. Menem's team have been tainted by corruption scandals. </s>

<s>[INST] The case of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, badly [/INST] damaged after completing his term by allegations of his brother's malfeasance, looms as an object lesson for Latin American strongmen. </s>

<s>[INST] --- Sombreros in the Ring Carlos [/INST] Menem Argentina's Mr. Menem denies any interest in another run. </s>

<s>[INST] But only a couple of years after the constitution was [/INST] rewritten to allow him a second stint in office, the president's supporters are combing the law for loopholes. </s>

<s>[INST] Fernando Cardoso Mr. Cardoso of Brazil [/INST] has been privately marshaling forces for re-election, while publicly demurring. </s>

<s>[INST] Alberto Fujimori In a bizarre decision last week, the legislature determined that [/INST] Mr. Fujimori's first presidential term didn't count toward the two-term constitutional limit, opening the door for a third run in the year 2000. </s>

<s>[INST] ___ Document 96 of 500 Argentina takes austerity steps aimed at [/INST] cutting budget deficit Author: Friedland, Jonathan Publication info: Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition [New York, N.Y] 13 Aug 1996: A8. </s>

<s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: Argentina's Economy Minister Roque Fernandez announced a new round [/INST] of austerity measures to contain Argentina's soaring budget deficit and bolster the confidence of international investors on which the country depends. </s>

<s>[INST] Full text: BUENOS AIRES -- Economy Minister Roque Fernandez announced a new [/INST] round of austerity measures to contain Argentina's soaring budget deficit and bolster the confidence of international investors on which the country depends. </s>

<s>[INST] In his first policy initiative since succeeding Domingo Cavallo late [/INST] last month, Mr. Fernandez increased fuel prices and boosted taxes on everything from magazines to life insurance. </s>

<s>[INST] He also cut subsidies to exporters and to the country's [/INST] middle class, already hit hard by a recession from which Argentina has only recently begun to emerge. </s>

<s>[INST] Mr. Fernandez took care, however, [/INST] to bolster financing for the very poor. </s>

<s>[INST] He also plans to raise additional cash by selling Argentina's [/INST] commercial airports, many military installations and its nuclear-power plants, and by cracking down on rampant tax evasion. </s>

<s>[INST] The government is betting that a cut in the budget deficit, which [/INST] totaled an unexpectedly high $2.8 billion in the first half of 1996, will keep borrowing costs low and nurture a still-tentative recovery. </s>

<s>[INST] But many private economists fear [/INST] the belt-tightening measures might trigger a recessionary relapse. </s>

<s>[INST] Mr. Fernandez, until last month the president [/INST] of the central bank here, apparently didn't have much choice in the matter. </s>

<s>[INST] An International Monetary Fund mission now in Buenos Aires wants to see Argentina [/INST] reduce a spending gap that has already forced it to raise some $3 billion on international capital markets since the start of the year. </s>

<s>[INST] The IMF fears that unless the gap is closed, Argentina could face difficulties [/INST] next year when the country's annual amortization and interest payments on its $90 billion debt rise by almost a third to $9.2 billion. </s>

<s>[INST] Added to the high current spending and a [/INST] still weak tax take, "the burden becomes insupportable," says Argentine economist Roberto Alemann. </s>

<s>[INST] J.P. Morgan Inc. economist Alfonso Prat-Gay isn't sure the latest measures, even on [/INST] top of an earlier round of subsidy cuts made by Mr. Cavallo in late July, will do much more than stanch the bleeding. </s>

<s>[INST] The measures "clearly won't be [/INST] enough to close the fiscal gap," says Mr. Prat-Gay. </s>

<s>[INST] Nor, he says, will they [/INST] tip the economy back into the doldrums. </s>

<s>[INST] Nonetheless, the package triggered immediate criticism that President Carlos Menem's government is catering [/INST] too much to the demands of international investors and doing too little to alleviate high unemployment and a deteriorating standard of living at home. </s>

<s>[INST] Last week, millions of workers here mounted their [/INST] first effective general strike since Mr. Menem came to office six years ago. </s>

<s>[INST] Pressure is mounting from not only unions, but also the influential Roman [/INST] Catholic Church, the opposition and Mr. Menem's own Peronist Party to take more active steps to cut a near-record 17.1% jobless rate. </s>

<s>[INST] Markets fell in anticipation of Monday's package, with the [/INST] Merval stock-market index down 1.9% to 528.58 and Argentine Brady bonds closing lower by one-quarter point. </s>

<s>[INST] ___ Document 106 of 500 Latin America Resists Reform Backlash --- Freed Markets Revive [/INST] Growth, But at High Social Cost Author: By Jonathan Friedland Publication info: Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition [New York, N.Y] 05 Aug 1996: A15. </s>

<s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: On the day last month that President Carlos Menem sacked Economics [/INST] Minister Domingo Cavallo, the architect of Argentina's market-oriented economic reforms, workers jammed the plaza in front of the palace demanding more jobs and better pay. </s>

<s>[INST] Instead of heeding their calls to prime the pump with government spending, Mr. Menem sent an [/INST] altogether different message: To succeed Mr. Cavallo, he picked central-bank chief Roque Fernandez, a bookish disciple of Milton Friedman who says there's no easy fix for the country's near-record unemployment rate. </s>

<s>[INST] Latin America is growing again after a nasty [/INST] 1995 recession triggered when Mexico's sudden devaluation sent investors bolting from the region. </s>

<s>[INST] The continent's major economies are expected to [/INST] post positive year-on-year growth for the second quarter; inflation is at historic lows. </s>

<s>[INST] And among the big countries, [/INST] except Brazil, government-spending numbers don't seem to be worrisome. </s>

<s>[INST] Full text: BUENOS AIRES -- On the day last month that President Carlos Menem [/INST] sacked Economics Minister Domingo Cavallo, the architect of Argentina's market-oriented economic reforms, workers jammed the plaza in front of the palace demanding more jobs and better pay. </s>

<s>[INST] Instead of heeding their calls to prime the pump with government spending, Mr. Menem sent an [/INST] altogether different message: To succeed Mr. Cavallo, he picked central-bank chief Roque Fernandez, a bookish disciple of Milton Friedman who says there's no easy fix for the country's near-record unemployment rate. </s>

<s>[INST] Latin America is growing again after a nasty [/INST] 1995 recession triggered when Mexico's sudden devaluation sent investors bolting from the region. </s>

<s>[INST] The continent's major economies are expected to [/INST] post positive year-on-year growth for the second quarter; inflation is at historic lows. </s>