Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru
The Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces[a] was a military dictatorship that ruled Peru from 1968 to 1980 after a successful coup d'état by the Armed Forces of Peru.
Peruvian Republic
(1968–1979)
República Peruana
Republic of Peru
(1979–1980)
República del Perú
(1968–1979)
República Peruana
Republic of Peru
(1979–1980)
República del Perú
Unitary Peruanista one-party revolutionary nationalist republic (de facto) under a military dictatorship (1968 - 1975)
Unitary one-party republic under a military dictatorship (1975 - 1980)
3 October 1968
29 August 1975
18 May 1980
The Revolutionary Junta,[3] headed by Juan Velasco Alvarado, appointed him as the de facto leader of the government, which promoted revolutionary nationalism and left-wing ideas that left a deep impact in the country.[4] Among the policies promoted were the promulgation of agrarian reform, the official recognition of Quechua, an increase of worker's rights, and the empowerment of workers' unions and indigenous Peruvians. Other measures, however, such as the nationalization of natural resources and the expropriation of companies and the media, generated a severe economic crisis and caused the international isolation of the country.
In response to this situation, Alvarado was overthrown in 1975 by his prime minister Francisco Morales Bermúdez who took power to undo the socialist-leaning measures taken by Velasco. In 1978, the new government convened a Constituent Assembly, which promulgated a new constitution in 1979, as well as elections in 1980. In this way, the twelve-year military rule ended, and Fernando Belaúnde was returned to power.
Background[edit]
In the 1950s, several nationalist governments in Latin America began processes of social and economic modernization, promoting the economic theory of developmentalism, which promoted agrarian reforms, industrialization through import substitution and the use of income sourced from the exploitation of natural resources. Such was the case of the New National Ideology in Venezuela, the Bolivian Revolution of 1952, the second government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in Chile, the National Development Plan of Juscelino Kubitschek in Brazil, among others.
In Peru, the electoral victory in 1962 of Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, head of the Peruvian Aprista Party, was annulled by a coup. The APRA government program proposed a transformation of the country, betting on agrarian reform to end the servitude regime on the indigenous people that still existed on the haciendas. The Military Junta of 1962 called for new elections for the following year, in which Fernando Belaunde was victorious, who defeated Haya, with a government plan that also proposed to reform the country and establish new contracts on the exploitation of natural resources, especially oil.
Despite the determined support of the Armed Forces for the reforms promised by the new government, Belaúnde was unable to fulfill the promise of agrarian reform or to resolve the conflict over the ownership of Peruvian oil, among other reasons, due to the fierce parliamentary opposition from APRA and the right-wing Odriist National Union, led by Manuel Odría.
In addition, Belaúnde had to face the peasant mobilization in Cusco led by Hugo Blanco and the irruption of two guerrilla forces in the country inspired by the victory of the Cuban Revolution: the National Liberation Army (ELN) commanded by Héctor Béjar and Javier Heraud, and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), led by an APRA militant, Luis de la Puente Uceda, and Guillermo Lobatón.
The Armed Forces, especially the Peruvian Army, quickly and forcefully defeated the ELN and MIR guerrillas. However, they realized the urgency of social and economic reforms in a country where there was still an oligarchic elite and huge marginalized groups of the poor and indigenous. Faced with the failure of the Belaundista reformism in democracy, the military decided to make the changes themselves with the idea of "starting the revolution from above to prevent it from being started from below."[5]
Second Phase[edit]
Velasco Alvarado was overthrown in 1975 by his prime minister Francisco Morales Bermúdez, who overturned many of Velasco Alvarado's pro-Socialist reforms and joined Operation Condor. His government repressed the protests that surged as a result of inflation.
The Morales Bermudez administration assumed a country in a serious economic crisis after Velasco's reforms. The economy failed to improve amid rising inflation and recession, as well as rising unemployment. This situation led to high social discontent, where many people of the working class, particularly those closest to the labor unions, came to see in each government action a reversal of the military revolution towards submission to the International Monetary Fund, as it proved unable to continue with the original leftist military government program, instead continuing with Morales Bermudez's program, such as the replacement of the Inca Plan with the Tupac Amaru Plan.
Two general strikes were called by unions such as the Workers' General Confederation of Peru as a result of social discontent. The first strike was held on July 19, 1977, the objective of which was to demand an improvement in the employment and salary situation, and the second in May of the following year, with a broader list of claims.
Morales Bermudez was forced to call a Constitutional Assembly, which was led by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, and new elections. The Revolutionary Government came to an end after Fernando Belaunde was reelected.
At the end of the military dictatorship, the growing problems with the payment of the foreign debt and the ineffectiveness of the State administration led to the appearance of symptoms of economic crisis and the incubation of social problems that in later years would increase.