Glossary -- Peru
- Alliance for Progress
- Established in 1961 at a hemispheric meeting in Punta del Este,
Uruguay, under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy as a
long-range program to help develop and modernize Latin American
states. Program involved various forms of foreign aid from the
United States to all states of Latin America and the Caribbean,
except Cuba. Its main instruments for fostering modernization were
development loans offered at very low or zero interest rates.
Program called for multisectoral reforms, particularly in health
and education.
- Andean Initiative (or Andean
Strategy)
- At the February 1990 Cartagena (Colombia) Drug Summit, the
presidents of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and the United States agreed
to mount a regional attack on the drug trade. Their governments
thereby qualified for United States counternarcotics assistance.
After taking office in July 1990, President Alberto K. Fujimori
proposed a comprehensive counternarcotics effort, to include
narcotic law enforcement, demand reduction, public diplomacy, and
economic development. However, progress in organizing this strategy
was hindered by police/military rivalries and corruption.
Furthermore, in late September 1990 Fujimori turned down US$35.9
million in authorized FY1990 United States military assistance
after the United States failed to meet his concerns about the
military focus of its antidrug strategy in Peru. After extensive
talks, Fujimori signed the Peru-United States umbrella agreement on
drug control and economic assistance on May 14, 1991, establishing
a political understanding at the highest level and serving as a
framework for a coordinated, comprehensive program to dismantle the
drug trade in Peru with assistance with the United States, other
developed countries, and international organizations. It addresses
the role of the police and military in counternarcotics activities,
alternative econmic assistance, crop substitution, and access to
establishing legitimate economies versus the cultivation and
illicit processing of coca leaf into cocaine products.
- Andean Pact
- An economic group, the Andean Common Market, created in 1969 by
Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru as a subregional market
to improve its members' bargaining power within the Latin American
Free Trade Association (LAFTA) and to encourage increased trade and
more rapid development. LAFTA, which dated from 1960, was replaced
in 1980 by the Latin American Integration Association (Asociación
Latinoamericana de Integración--ALADI), which advocated a regional
tariff preference for goods originating in member states. Chile
left the Pact in 1976. The threat that Peru might withdraw from the
Pact had receded by August 1992.
- audiencia
- A high court of justice, exercising some administrative and
executive functions in the colonial period.
- ayllu
- A self-governing and land-owning peasant community in the
Andean highlands. May refer to either a village, a kinship group,
or a class-like organization, usually based on collective
agriculture. Although a pre-Columbian term, ayllu has been
used as a synonym for contemporary highland Peasant Communities.
- Baker debt-reduction plan
- As part of the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative
(q.v.), Nicholas F. Brady, the United States secretary of
the treasury in the administration of President George H.W. Bush
(1989-93), led a United States Government interagency process that
determined country eligibility for debt reduction. The Brady Plan
has been used to forge agreements between banks and the governments
of several Latin American nations.
- barriadas
- Squatter settlements or shantytowns that surround Lima and
other urban centers. Since the late 1960s, these settlements have
been also known as pueblos jóvenes (young towns).
- cabildo
- A town council in the colonial period, usually composed of the
most prominent citizens.
- cholo
- A term that has a variety of definitions and social
implications. During colonial times, it was equivalent to mestizo
but has evolved to include persons of mixed or pure native American
ancestry who are trying to move up the social and economic ladder
by observing various Hispanic cultural norms. Cholos speak
Spanish in addition to an indigenous language.
Choloficación (Cholofication) refers to the transition
process from native American to mestizo status.
- compadrazgo
- Literally, copaternity. A system of ritual coparenthood that
links parents, children, and godparents in a close social or
economic relationship.
- Contadora Support Group
- A diplomatic initiative launched by a January 1983 meeting on
Contadora Island off the Pacific coast of Panama, by which the
"Core Four" mediator countries of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and
Panama sought to prevent through negotiations a regional
conflagration among the Central American states of Guatemala, El
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In September 1984,
the negotiating process produced a draft treaty, the Contadora Act,
which was judged acceptable by the government of Nicaragua but
rejected by the other four Central American states concerned. The
governments of Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil formed the
Contadora Support Group in 1985 in an effort to revitalize the
faltering talks. The process was suspended unofficially in June
1986 when the Central American governments refused to sign a
revised treaty. The Contadora process was effectively superseded by
direct negotiations among the Central American states.
- consumer price index (CPI)
- A statistical measure of sustained change in the price level
weighted according to spending patterns.
- corporatist
- An adherent to corporatism, a sociopolitical philosophy that
found its most developed expression in Italy under Benito
Mussolini. Corporatism is antithetical to both Marxist and liberal
democratic political ideals. A corporatist would organize society
into industrial and professional corporations that serve as organs
of political representation within a hierarchical, centralized
polity.
- corregidores de indios
- Magistrates or chief officers, usually a white or
cholo (q.v.), in preindependence Peru charged
with administering local native American affairs in
corregimientos (q.v.).
- corregimientos
- Colonial administrative districts that later became
intendencias (intendancies or provinces) and Catholic
dioceses or parishes.
- dependency analysis
- A theory that seeks to explain the continuing problems of Latin
American underdevelopment and political conflict by positing the
existence of an imperialistic, exploitative relationship between
the industrialized countries and the developing nations of Latin
America and other developing regions.
- Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
- A United Nations regional economic commission established in
1948 as the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA). In 1984
expanded its operations and title to include the Caribbean. Main
functions are to initiate and coordinate policies aimed at
promoting economic development. In addition to the countries of
Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC's forty-one members in 1992
included Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
and the United States. There were an additional five Caribbean
associate members.
- economies of scale
- Decreases in the unit cost of production associated with
increasing output.
- effective protection
- The percentage increase in value added, compared with what it
could have been at international prices, as a result of the higher
domestic prices permitted by protection.
- encomenderos
- Colonial grantees, usually large landowners, to rights over
native American labor and tribute in exchange for assuming
responsibility to protect and Christianize these native subjects.
- encomienda(s)
- A system adopted in 1503 whereby the Spanish Crown assigned
rights over native American labor and tribute in the Spanish
American colonies to individual colonists (encomenderos)
in return for protecting and Christianizing their subjects.
However, most ended up as virtual slaves with no recognized rights.
The system was not ended until late in the eighteenth century.
- Enterprise for the Americas
Initiative
- A plan announced by President George H.W. Bush on June 27,
1990, calling for the United States to negotiate agreements with
selected Latin American countries to reduce their official debt to
the United States and make funds available through the
restructuring for environmental programs, to stimulate private
investment, and to take steps to promote extensive trade
liberalization with the goal of establishing free trade throughout
the Western Hemisphere.
- export-led growth
- An economic development strategy that emphasizes export
promotion as the engine of economic growth. Proponents of this
strategy emphasize the correlation between growth in exports and
growth in the aggregate economy.
- fiscal year (FY)
- Calendar year.
- gamonales (sing.
gamonal)
- Ruthless rural bosses who used armed force as well as the law
to obtain land, displacing many native Americans in the process.
- gross domestic product (GDP)
- A measure of the total value of goods and services produced by
the domestic economy during a given period, usually one year.
Obtained by adding the value contributed by each sector of the
economy in the form of profits, compensation to employees, and
depreciation (consumption of capital). The income arising from
investments and possessions owned abroad is not included, hence the
use of the word domestic to distinguish GDP from gross
national product (q.v.).
- gross national product (GNP)
- Total market value of all final goods and services produced by
an economy during a year. Obtained by adding the gross domestic
product (q.v.) and the income received from abroad by
residents less payments remitted abroad to nonresidents.
- Group of Eight
- A permanent mechanism for consultation and political
coordination that succeeded the Contadora Support Group
(q.v.) in December 1986. It consisted of Argentina,
Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Its
second meeting, attended by the presidents of seven member-
countries (Panama's membership was temporarily suspended in
February 1988), was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in October
1988. Like the Contadora Support Group, the Group of Eight
advocated democracy and a negotiated solution to the Central
American insurgencies. Its name was changed in 1990 to the Group of
Rio, which had eleven members in 1992. Peru was suspended from the
Rio Group following President Alberto K. Fujimori's self-coup on
April 6, 1992, but was formally reinstated in April 1993.
- hacendado
- Hacendados (owners of haciendas) often acted as intermediaries
for gamonales (q.v.) in taking over native
American lands and extorting wool merchants.
- import-substitution industrialization
- An economic development strategy that emphasizes the growth of
domestic industries, often by import protection using tariff and
nontariff measures. Proponents favor the export of industrial goods
over primary products.
- informal sector
- Unofficial sector of underground economic activity beyond
government regulation and taxation, to include street vendors in
urban areas as well as coca-growers in rural areas.
- International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
- Established on July 22, 1944, the IMF began operating along
with the World Bank (q.v.) on December 27, 1945. The IMF
is a specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations that
takes responsibility for stabilizing international exchange rates
and payments. The IMF's main business is the provision of loans to
its members when they experience balance-of-payments difficulties.
These loans often carry conditions that require substantial
internal economic adjustments by the recipients. In 1992 the IMF
had 156 members.
- latifundios
- Large estates held as private property, which may be farmed as
plantations, by tenant sharecroppers, or as traditional haciendas.
The latifundio system (latifundismo) is a pattern of land
ownership based on latifundios owned by local gentry, absentee
landlords, and domestic or foreign corporations.
- liberation theology
- An activist movement led by Roman Catholic clergy who traced
their inspiration to Vatican Council II (1965), where some church
procedures were liberalized, and the Second Latin American Bishops'
Conference in Medellín (1966), which endorsed greater direct
efforts to improve the lot of the poor. Advocates of liberation
theology, sometimes referred to as "liberationists," have worked
mainly through Christian Base Communities (Comunidades
Eclesiásticas de Base--CEBs).
- licenciado
- A person granted a higher degree in a university; also a title
bestowed on lawyers.
- machismo
- Cult of male dominance, derived from the word macho,
meaning male.
- Marginality
- A concept used to explain the poor political, economic, and
social conditions of individuals within a society, social classes
within a nation, or nations within the larger world community. It
refers often to poverty-stricken groups left behind in the
modernization process. They are not integrated into the
socioeconomic system, and their relative poverty increases.
Marginality is sometimes referred to as dualism or the dual-society
thesis.
- mayorazgo
- Colonial system whereby the elder son inherited the titles and
properties of the family.
- mayordomos
- Special officials in colonial Peru appointed, sometimes under
threat of physical punishment for refusal, for important
celebrations. Their duties included making sure the priest's pay
was available and making up shortages out of their personal
patrimony.
- Mercosur--(Mercado Común del Cono Sur--
Southern Cone Common Market)
- An organization established on March 26, 1991, by Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay for the purpose of promoting regional
economic cooperation. Chile was conspicuously absent because of its
insistence that the other four countries first had to lower their
tariffs to the Chilean level before Chile could join. Mercosur
aimed to form a common market by December 31, 1994. Bolivia hoped
to eventually become a fifth member.
- mestizo
- Originally, term designated the offspring of a Spaniard and a
native American. It now means any obviously nonwhite individual who
is fluent in Spanish and observes Hispanic cultural norms.
- minifundios
- Very small landholdings, legally held, allowing only a bare
existence.
- mita system
- A colonial system whereby all taxpayers had to work a
prescribed number of days annually in the mita, or labor
pool, to run the households of local leaders. Each taxpayer could
be called up by his or her curaca (chief) to work on
imperial or local projects at any convenient time.
- mita de minas
- A compulsory labor system implemented by the Spaniards to work
the mines. Required that all able-bodied native American men
present themselves periodically for short periods of paid work in
the mines. System led to abuses: inhumane treatment of the
conscripts, arbitrary extensions of the service period, and
depletion of adult males from individual communities.
- obrajes
- Rudimentary textile factories set up throughout the highlands
in the colonial period to pay the tribute owed to
encomiendas (q.v.).
- Organization of American States
(OAS)
- Established by the Ninth International Conference of American
States held in Bogotá on April 30, 1948, and effective since
December 13, 1951, the OAS has served as a major regional
organization composed of thirty-five members, including most Latin
American states and the United States and Canada. Determines common
political, defense, economic, and social policies and provides for
coordination of various inter-American agencies. Responsible for
implementing the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
(Rio Treaty) (q.v.) when any threat to the security of the
region arises.
- patrón
- Usually a large landowner who is called on to provide his
workers land, water, and sometimes materials and/or equipment and
salary payments, as well as protection from outsiders, including
local officials, and even from fellow workers.
- praetorian
- Praetorianism is a form of militarism in which the armed forces
act as a corporate body to maintain control over government,
actively intervening in politics to select or change the
government. The "ruler-type" praetorian army rejects the existing
social order for one based on modernization, industrialization, and
rapid economic growth, as the Peruvian Army (Ejército Peruano--EP)
did following its assumption of power in 1968. Political scientist
Samuel Huntington describes a praetorian society as one in which
social forces confront each other directly, with no institutions
accepted as legitimate mediaries and, more importantly, no
agreement existing among the groups as to an authoritative means
for conflict resolution.
- Primary exports
- Peru's traditional primary goods exports, as opposed to
manufactured exports, included cotton, sugar, copper, silver, lead,
zinc, and oil.
- Protocol of Rio de janeiro (Rio
Protocol)
- An agreement concluded in Rio de Janeiro on January 29, 1942,
between Peru and Ecuador with the participation of the mediatory
nations of Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. It was
ratified by the congresses of both Peru and Ecuador on February 26,
1942, and it established the border between the two countries as
internationally recognized today. Following the discovery of the
Río Cenepa between the Zamora and Santiago rivers in the Cordillera
del Cóndor in 1951, Ecuador disputed the treaty demarcation, which
then stopped, leaving a stretch of the border uncharted. Ecuador
repudiated the treaty in 1960, but the guarantor powers ruled this
repudiation invalid.
- pueblos jóvenes
- See barriadas.
- real exchange rate
- The value of foreign exchange corrected for differences between
external and domestic inflation.
- reducciones
- Viceroy Francisco de Toledo's orders created hundreds of these
colonial settlements for only native Americans. Although
conveniently located in the flat valley bottoms, these settlements
were established in areas subject to floods and avalanches. Their
governing personnel consisted only of native Americans.
- repartimiento
- State monopoly of selling inferior goods at inflated prices to
conquered native Americans. Set off a wave of violent protests in
1776.
- residencia
- A formal inquiry conducted at the end of a colonial official's
term of office.
- Rio Group
- See Group of Eight.
- Rio Protocol
- See Protocol of Rio de Janeiro.
- Rio Treaty (Inter-American Treaty of
Reciprocal Assistance)
- A regional alliance, signed in Rio de Janeiro on September 2,
1947, that established a mutual security system to safeguard the
Western Hemisphere from aggression from within or outside the zone.
Signatories include the United States and twenty Latin American
republics. In 1975 a special conference approved, over United
States objections, a Protocol of Amendment to the Rio Treaty that,
once ratified, would establish the principle of "ideological
pluralism" and would simplify the rescinding of sanctions imposed
on an aggressor party.
- Slash-and-burn agriculture
- Method of cultivation whereby areas of the forest are burned
and cleared for planting, the ash providing some fertilization.
Area is cultivated for several years and then left fallow for a
decade or longer.
- sol (S/)
- Peru's unit of currency, technically the nuevo sol (new sol),
consisting of 100 céntimos, established officially as Peru's
monetary unit on January 4, 1991. In late 1992, the exchange rate
for the new sol was S/1.63=US$1. In the late 1800s, a silver sol
was the country's currency until its metallic content exceeded its
monetary value and it was exported instead of circulating. Before
the 1860s, Bolivian coins circulated in Peru. The sol was
established by law in 1931 as an unminted gold coin; bank notes
were issued in terms of gold soles. It replaced the Peruvian gold
pound created in 1900. The Peruvian pound was equivalent in value
to the British pound, and both circulated as legal tender.
Beginning in 1975, the value of the sol declined continuously as
officials attempted to adjust the exchange rate to the rate of
inflation. By mid-1985 the sol had deteriorated to more than
S/11,900 per US$1, when a new unit of currency, the inti
(equivalent to S/1,000), was introduced. By 1990 US$1 equaled about
188,000 intis. Consequently, President Fujimori adopted the new
sol, equivalent to 1 million inti, in July 1991. The free exchange
rate in Peruvian currency in February 1993 was 2,100 new soles to
the dollar.
- terms of trade
- The relationship between the price of primary exports and the
price of manufactured goods. May be defined as the ratio of the
average price of a country's exports to the average price of its
imports. In international economics, the concept of "terms of
trade" plays an important role in evaluating exchange relationships
between developed and developing nations.
- value-added tax (VAT)
- An incremental tax applied to the value added at each stage of
the processing of a raw material or the production and distribution
of a commodity. It is calculated as the difference between the
product value at a given state and the cost of all materials and
services purchased as inputs. The value-added tax is a form of
indirect taxation, and its impact on the ultimate consumer is the
same as that of a sales tax.
- World Bank
- Informal name used to designate a group of four affiliated
international institutions: International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (IBRD), International Development Association
(IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral
Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). IBRD, established in 1945, has
the primary purpose of providing loans at market-related rates of
interest to developing countries at more advanced stages of
development. IDA, a legally separate loan fund administered by the
staff of IBRD, was set up in 1960 to furnish credits to the poorest
developing countries on much easier terms than those of
conventional IBRD loans. IFC, founded in 1956, supplements the
activities of IBRD through loans and assistance designed
specifically to encourage the growth of productive private
enterprises in less developed countries. MIGA, founded in 1988,
insures private foreign investment in developing countries against
various noncommercial risks. The president and certain senior
officers of IBRD hold the same positions in the IFC. The four
institutions are owned by the governments of the countries that
subscribe their capital. To participate in the World Bank group,
member states must first belong to IMF (q.v.).
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