July 26, 2002

LIMA, Peru - Hundreds of chanting Peruvians filled a colonial plaza in downtown Lima on Friday for an unusual protest activity — washing diapers to demand that President Alejandro Toledo recognize a 14-year-old girl as his daughter.

The teen-age girl, Zarai Toledo, whose mother gave her the president's last name, took breaks from dunking white rags and diapers into a plastic tub to shout through a megaphone in San Martin plaza.

The symbolic act was a call for Toledo "to take responsibility for me, because he is the president of all of us, the father of all of us," she said. "He must set an example of responsible fatherhood."

The crowd chanted slogans like "Zarai, Dignity" and "Toledo: your daughter is here." One sign read: "To be a good president you have to be a good father." A giant baby bottle made from plastic foam bobbed above the crowd.

Toledo, whose popularity has tumbled to below 20 percent since he took office a year ago, was in Ecuador attending a meeting of South American presidents.

The beleaguered president has denied for years that he is the father of Zarai, as she is now known throughout Peru.

A paternity suit filed by her mother, Lucrecia Orozco, has skipped around Peru's courts since 1992. The case is now before the Supreme Court, which on July 4 suspended a lower court ruling ordering Toledo to submit to a DNA test on Aug. 7.

A recent poll showed that 81 percent of Lima residents believe Toledo is Zarai's father. Analysts and opposition leaders have called for the president to either take a DNA test or recognize the girl as his daughter to resolve an issue they say has devastated his credibility.

"I want him to recognize his daughter or to come out and tell all of Peru that she is not his daughter. He has to say it publicly," Aurelia Vargas, a 51-year-old mother of six, said as the protesters marched to the Palace of Justice.

Toledo's government has been wracked by frequent street protests and strikes as various groups voice frustration with a stalled economy and lack of jobs. Toledo based his campaign on pledges of millions of jobs, and many Peruvians now accuse him of not keeping his word.

Orozco's suit resurfaced during the 2000 campaign. Toledo argued that the renewed court action was politically motivated and refused to take a DNA test, saying he would after the election if a judge ruled he should.

He has not commented publicly on the matter since he took office.

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