Overview

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Overview

The evolution of Peruvian party politics historically has lagged behind that of many other Latin American states. Not until the 1930s did a mass-based party emerge, and even in the early twenty-first century the nation lacks a full-blown system of well-organized and doctrinally identifiable parties. The most primitive form of parties can be traced back to the nineteenth century, but development has been painfully slow.

The first Peruvian party was the Partido Civilista (PC), created in 1871 by Manuel Pardo in opposition to the military domination of politics. With its leadership characterized for decades as an "oligarchy of talent," the Civilistas remained a potent force well into the twentieth century. During the oncenio (1919–1930) of dictatorial rule by Augusto B. Leguía, the party was effectively squashed. By that time the Partido Aprista Peruano (PAP) had come into being as what would become the first party of the so-called democratic Left in Latin America. Dating from its official founding in Mexico under Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre in 1924, APRA (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana), as it was then known, became a central actor in twentieth-century Peruvian politics.

At the outset a revolutionary nationalist organization, APRA under the legendary Haya became the main vehicle for all those opposed to oligarchic domination. The party was illegal for much of the time from 1931 to 1956, while Haya and other party leaders experienced harassment and lengthy periods of exile. The party won congressional elections in 1945, when it was permitted to participate, although Haya himself was unable to seek the presidency. Only in 1962 was he finally allowed to become a presidential candidate, the first time in thirty-one years.

Haya narrowly led a three-candidate race but lacked the one-third vote necessary to declare victory. While negotiations with other groups took place, the military intervened and canceled elections. A year later Haya ran second to Fernando Belaúnde Terry, who had founded his own party, Acción Popular (AP) in 1956. Espousing a moderate reformism and presenting a new and fresh face to the public, he defeated Haya when a new round of elections was held in 1963. Winning 39 percent of the vote to Haya's 34 percent, Belaúnde soon found himself opposed in Congress by APRA as well as the former dictator Manuel A. Odría and his personalistic Unión Nacional Odriísta (UNO).

The armed forces ousted Belaúnde in 1968, introducing more than a decade of military authoritarianism. During these years AP withered while APRA sought to maintain its force and prepare for the eventual withdrawal of the military. When military-sponsored elections for a constituent assembly were held in 1978, APRA seized the opportunity to reassert itself. The party won some 35 percent of the vote and dominated the drafting of the Constitution of 1979. Haya presided over the process but died soon after. However, the party was beginning to undergo a renewal of its leadership. Meanwhile, Belaúnde returned home to reorganize AP.

Acción Popular had originally espoused reformist policies, but by 1980 the party had followed its leader to the right of center. After garnering 45 percent of the vote in the presidential elections of 1980, AP declined rapidly as the Belaúnde government fell into disfavor; by 1985 its support dropped to a scant 7 percent. Conversely, APRA regained its primacy. The party's youthful secretary-general, Alán García, formerly a protégé of Haya de la Torre, polled 53 percent of the vote to win his presidential bid. The fate of the party was bound to the García administration, and its fall from public favor, marred by hyperinflation and failed policies, led to a major electoral shift in 1990.

During the 1980s a group of leftist parties amassed popular support. The Izquierda Unida (IU) first emerged as a loose pro-Marxist alliance of mini-groups that won one-third of the vote for the constituent assembly in 1978, and by 1985 its presidential candidate, Alfonso Barrantes Lingán, ran second to García with nearly 25 percent of the vote. The coalition has since fragmented, and its voter appeal has diminished. The rise of the murderous Marxist guerrilla movement Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) also became a hindrance to left-wing parties. The 1990 elections demonstrated the amorphous nature of the Peruvian party system in the present era. The novelist Mario Vargas Llosa first patched together a group of rightist parties and captured widespread support in criticism of the García administration. Yet his campaign foundered, and at the last minute Alberto Fujimori, a complete unknown, won the presidency with a vague organization known as Cambio 90. Within a year of his inauguration it had virtually disintegrated, and APRA once again became Peru's major national party.

Fujimori's reign has become associated with corruption, although he was reelected in 1995. In 2000 he was challenged by another political dark horse, Alejandro Toledo, who had formed the party Perú Posible. Fujimori was able to stave off Toledo's challenge amid a maelstrom of confusion and suspicion. A year later, in a new election, Toledo won the presidency in a close contest against Alan García's APRA. In 2006 García and APRA narrowly edged Ollanta Humala, whose candidacy was sponsored by the center-left party Unión por el Perú. This reinforces the history of Peruvian politics, which demonstrates few concrete trends. The political process is undoubtedly more personalistic than party-oriented. And increasingly it seems that political parties in Peru, with the exception of APRA, lack dexterity, often disappearing quickly after enjoying popularity with a specific candidate.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gilberg, Trond, ed. Coalition Strategies of Marxist Parties. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989.

Kantor, Harry. The Ideology and Program of the Peruvian Aprista Movement. New York: Octagon Books, 1953.

Klarén, Peter F. Modernization, Dislocation, and Aprismo: Origins of the Peruvian Aprista Party, 1870–1932. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973.

McDonald, Ronald H., and J. Mark Ruhl. Party Politics and Elections in Latin America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989.

Palmer, David Scott. Peru: The Authoritarian Tradition. New York: Praeger, 1980.

Starn, Orin, et al., eds. The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics, 2nd edition. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.

John D. Martz

Sean H. Goforth

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture