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Peru Military Reform from Above, 1968-80
The military intervention and its reformist orientation
represented changes both in the armed forces and Peruvian
society. Within the armed forces, the social origins of
the
officer corps no longer mirrored the background and
outlook of
the creole upper classes, which had historically inclined
the
officers to follow the mandate of the oligarchy.
Reflective of
the social changes and mobility that were occurring in
society at
large, officers now exhibited middle- and lower middle
class,
provincial, mestizo or
cholo (see Glossary)
backgrounds.
General Velasco, a cholo himself, had grown up in
humble
circumstances in the northern department of Piura and
purportedly
went to school barefoot.
Moreover, this generation of officers had fought and
defeated
the guerrilla movements in the backward Sierra. In the
process,
they had come to the realization that internal peace in
Peru
depended not so much on force of arms, but on implementing
structural reforms that would relieve the burden of
chronic
poverty and underdevelopment in the region. In short,
development, they concluded, was the best guarantee for
national
security. The Belaúnde government had originally held out
the
promise of reform and development, but had failed. The
military
attributed that failure, at least in part, to flaws in the
democratic political system that had enabled the
opposition to
block and stalemate reform initiatives in Congress. As
nationalists, they also abhorred the proposed pact with
the IPC
and looked askance at stories of widespread corruption in
the
Belaúnde government.
Velasco moved immediately to implement a radical reform
program, which seemed, ironically, to embody much of the
original
1931 program of the army's old nemesis, APRA. His first
act was
to expropriate the large agroindustrial plantations along
the
coast. The agrarian reform that followed, the most
extensive in
Latin America outside of Cuba, proceeded to destroy the
economic
base of power of the old ruling classes, the export
oligarchy,
and its gamonal allies in the Sierra. By 1975 half
of all
arable land had been transferred, in the form of various
types of
cooperatives, to over 350,000 families comprising about
onefourth of the rural population, mainly estate workers and
renters
(colonos). Agricultural output tended to maintain
its
rather low pre-reform levels, however, and the reform
still left
out an estimated 1 million seasonal workers and only
marginally
benefited campesinos in the native communities (about 40
percent
of the rural population).
The Velasco regime also moved to dismantle the liberal,
export model of development that had reached its limits
after the
long postwar expansion. The state now assumed, for the
first time
in history, a major role in the development process. Its
immediate target was the foreign-dominated sector, which
during
the 1960s had attained a commanding position in the
economy. At
the end of the Belaúnde government in 1968, three-quarters
of
mining, one-half of manufacturing, two-thirds of the
commercial
banking system, and one-third of the fishing industry were
under
direct foreign control.
Velasco reversed this situation. By 1975 state
enterprises
accounted for more than half of mining output, two-thirds
of the
banking system, a fifth of industrial production, and half
of
total productive investment. Velasco's overall development
strategy was to shift from a laissez-faire to a "mixed"
economy,
to replace export-led development with import-substitution
industrialization. At the same time, the state implemented
a
series of social measures designed to protect workers and
redistribute income in order to expand the domestic
market.
In the realm of foreign policy, the Velasco regime
undertook
a number of important initiatives. Peru became a driving
force
not only behind the creation of an
Andean Pact (see Glossary) in
1969 to establish a common market with coordinated trade
and
investment policies, but also in the movement of
nonaligned
countries of the Third World. Reflecting a desire to end
its
perceived dependency economically and politically on the
United
States, the Velasco government also moved to diversify its
foreign relations by making trade and aid pacts with the
Soviet
Union and East European countries, as well as with Japan
and West
European nations. Finally, Peru succeeded during the 1970s
in
establishing its international claims to a 303-kilometer
territorial limit in the Pacific Ocean.
By the time Velasco was replaced on August 29, 1975, by
the
more conservative General Francisco Morales Bermúdez
Cerrutti
(1975-80), his reform program was already weakening.
Natural
calamities, the world oil embargo of 1973, increasing
international indebtedness (Velasco had borrowed heavily
abroad
to replace lost investment capital to finance his
reforms), overbureaucratization , and general mismanagement had
undermined early
economic growth and triggered a serious inflationary
spiral. At
the same time, Velasco, suffering from terminal cancer,
had
become increasingly personalistic and autocratic,
undermining the
institutional character of military rule. Unwilling to
expand his
initial popularity through party politics, he had created
a
series of mass organizations, tied to the state in
typically
corporatist (see Glossary)
and patrimonialist fashion, in order
to mobilize support and control the pace of reform.
However, despite his rhetoric to create truly popular, democratic
organizations, he manipulated them from above in an
increasingly arbitrary manner. What had begun as an unusual populist
type of military experiment evolved into a form of what political
scientist Guillermo O'Donnell calls "bureaucratic
authoritarianism," with increasingly authoritarian and
personalistic characteristics that were manifested in
"Velasquismo."
Velasco's replacement, General Morales Bermúdez, spent
most
of his term implementing an economic austerity program to
stem
the surge of inflation. Public opinion increasingly turned
against the rule of the armed forces, which it blamed for
the
country's economic troubles, widespread corruption, and
mismanagement of the government, as well as the general
excesses
of the "revolution." Consequently, Morales Bermúdez
prepared to
return the country to the democratic process.
Elections were held in 1978 for a Constituent Assembly
empowered to rewrite the constitution. Although Belaúnde's
AP
boycotted the election, an array of newly constituted
leftist
parties won an unprecedented 36 percent of the vote, with
much of
the remainder going to APRA. The Assembly, under the
leadership
of the aging and terminally ill Velasco (who would die in
1980),
completed the new document in 1979. Meanwhile, the
popularity of
former president Belaúnde underwent a revival. Belaúnde
was
decisively reelected president in 1980, with 45 percent of
the
vote, for a term of five years.
Data as of September 1992
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