Alan García
Alan García was elected president in 2006 on the second round of voting. He managed to defeat Ollanta Humala, a left-of-centre nationalist, who won most votes in the first round, but not enough to win outright.
García’s second government – he was president previously between 1985 and 1990 – has been a far cry from his first in policy terms. Having previously espoused heterodox economic policies, he has sought to allay business fears by following a neo-liberal agenda. He has sought to attract foreign investment, especially in extractive industries like mining and hydrocarbons, and to liberalise foreign trade by negotiating free trade agreements with Peru’s main commercial partners.
Such policies have pitted his government against a number of social movements, particularly in the mining sector. He has expressed little sympathy for those peasant and indigenous communities that oppose mining concessions on their land. In an article published in 2007, he accused these of adopting a ‘dog-in-the-manger’ stance and of standing in the way of the country’s progress.
One of the most serious bouts of conflict took place in the northern jungle town of Bagua in June 2009, after a stand-off between riot police and members of indigenous groups opposed to government proposals to change the laws of land tenure to attract investors in the oil sector. However, there have been other confrontations, many violent.
Several years of rapid economic growth have enabled the García government to reduce levels of poverty in Peru, although the veracity of government poverty statistics are sometimes disputed. However, hit by the global economic downturn of 2008-2009, poverty levels increased in 2009 while Peru remains a very unequal country, socially, regionally and ethnically.
With presidential elections due in the first half of 2011, in which García is constitutionally barred from standing, there is considerable uncertainty as to who his successor will be. Leading candidates include Luis Castañeda Lossio, the mayor of Lima; Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori; former president Alejandro Toledo; and Ollanta Humala, keen to challenge a second time for the presidency.
Lacking a parliamentary majority, the García government opted for informal alliances with the more conservative groups in Congress, including a group of Fujimori stalwarts and supporters of the pro-business Partido Popular Cristiano (PPC). Under García, the military has regained much of the power it lost on the downfall of Fujimori in 2000. The vice-president, a retired admiral, has been an influential man behind the scenes, adopting conservative positions. He has sought to protect military interests, particularly with respect to human rights.
The human rights agenda has advanced little under García. Most of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) have been shelved. The TRC issued its report into human rights atrocities in 2003, blaming both left-wing Sendero Luminoso insurgents and the armed forces for the killing of over 70,000 people between 1980 and 2000. Many of the worst violations took place during the first García government in the 1980s. García has been blamed for a number of massacres, including those of Accomarca (1985), El Frontón (1986) and Cayara (1988).
