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Peru The Democratic Front
The AP and the PPC together provided the organizational
basis
for Mario Vargas Llosa and his independent Liberty
Movement
(Movimiento de Libertad). Vargas Llosa, who entered
politics to
protest García's nationalization of Peru's banks in 1987,
started
out as an independent, backed by the Liberty Movement. In
late
1988, however, Vargas Llosa made a formal alliance, known
as
Fredemo, with the AP and the PPC, because he felt this
provided
him with a necessary party organizational base. By doing
so, he
alienated several members of his own coalition, including
one of
his primary backers, Hernando de Soto, who felt that
Vargas Llosa
was allying with the "traditional" right. Analysis of the
electoral results indicated that the majority of voters
were also
reluctant to support Peru's traditional, conservative
politicians. The Fredemo campaign spent inordinate amounts
of
money on advertising--US$12 million, versus US$2 million
spent by
the next highest spender, APRA. This, in conjunction with
the use
in television campaign advertisements of white,
foreign-born
singers, revealed how these parties continued to represent
the
interests of the nation's elite, who were of European
ancestry,
and how out of touch they were with the nation's poor, who
were
of indigenous heritage
(see Culture, Class, and Hierarchy in Society
, ch. 2).
Data as of September 1992
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