Warning: cargo-cult programming ahead! This code is from XML::TiePYX, it works except when the strings come from a recent version of XML::Parser.

You can probably try this:

sub utf2latin1
  { my $text=shift;
    $text=~ s{([\xc0-\xc3])(.)}{ my $hi = ord($1);
                                my $lo = ord($2);
                                chr((($hi & 0x03) <<6) | ($lo & 0x3F))
                              }ge;
    return $text;
  }
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