"These internal threats arise when the basic needs of sectors of the population cannot find institutional channels to deal with their demands," Toledo said. "In these countries, the credibility of democracy is a key issue."

That situation applies to Peru, Toledo said, where "national self-esteem was damaged" under his predecessors of the past 10 years. He said Peru and other countries in the region must begin to work to meet the needs of their poor if they want legitimate relationships with their people.

"We have the urgent and unavoidable duty of reversing this increasing trend toward disenchantment with democracy," Toledo said. "If we do not do this, we will be inexorably threatened by the constant uncertainties of our history, of falling back on an authoritarian regime under the pretext of imposing order, which would be a mediocre, authoritarian, corrupt and savage order."

Afterward, Toledo met with President George W. Bush advisers on national security and drug policy but left the White House without speaking to reporters.

Toledo addressed the OAS as part of a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, an OAS pact aimed at shielding democracies against power grabs by elected leaders who seek to dissolve legislatures, interfere with courts, rewrite constitutions and rig elections to perpetuate their rule.

Peru proposed the accord in April 2001, just months after ex-President Alberto Fujimori decade-long authoritarian rule collapsed in a corruption scandal.

"We are at a crossroad in the history of this continent," Toledo said. "The difficult situation that several of our countries are experiencing does not allow us to experiment with policies when life and the rights and hopes of our peoples are at stake."