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Peru Protector of Democracy
Peru's military rulers did not try to destroy civilian
political organizations and even encouraged the
development of
the largely Marxist left, as an alternative to APRA. So
when
circumstances forced civilian political parties in 1977
and 1978
to consider the political future of Peru, they were ready
to take
responsibility through Constituent Assembly elections and
the
drafting of a new constitution. The military, exhausted by
the
most extended period in its history in control of the
government,
were thus more than willing to assume a new role as
protectors
and defenders of their country's first mass democracy.
Among
other results, this period of the military in power had
the
effect of raising substantially the threshold of any
future
military intervention in Peru.
The FF.AA., humbled but not humiliated as in some Latin
American countries, certainly did not expect Peru's
democracy to
be challenged by insurgency. Nor did it expect to be
forced to
protect this democracy by carrying out military operations
involving large-scale loss of life among civilians,
insurgents,
and military/police forces alike, as well as substantial
human
rights violations. True, formal or procedural democracy in
Peru
was sustained, with the military's assistance, for a
longer
period since 1980 than at any time since the first decade
of the
twentieth century. However, the gradual increase in
provinces and
departments declared to be under states of emergency and
thus
subject to military rather than civilian control
substantially
eroded the formal democratic reality. The 1987-91 economic
crisis, in addition to its adverse effects on the
population,
also substantially reduced government funding of the armed
forces, making the FF.AA.'s commitment to protect civilian
democratic government increasingly uncertain.
Data as of September 1992
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