Alan García, the leader of the APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) party, took over as president of Peru on July 28 2006. Few people would have thought that the disgraced politician who left his country in economic shambles in 1990 would return to resume his tenancy of Lima’s Palacio de Pizarro. How much has he learned from past mistakes? This is the question that weighs on the minds of many Peruvians.

García has made no secret of his past errors with respect to management of the economy. What we are about to see is no return to the policies of limiting debt repayment, nationalization of commercial banks or to the policies associated with so-called ‘heterodoxy’. Alan has recanted of his youthful radicalism. Indeed, he seems set upon a course of macroeconomic orthodoxy, a source of delight and relief to the country’s businessmen and the foreign investor community.

Perhaps more important for the long term is the question of whether a second García administration will seek to tackle the country’s social, ethnic and economic divides. The ‘social agenda’ was on the lips of most of the candidates fighting the 2006 presidential elections. However, the divides are as deep as ever.

When president before, García was not oblivious to the needs of the poor. He tried to appeal to them, both those living in urban shantytowns and in peasant communities. But his efforts in this direction were frustrated by the counterinsurgency war against Sendero and the economic crisis of the late 1980s, which rendered social policy totally ineffective. In fact, Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that Mr García was politically responsible for some of the bloodiest counter-insurgency operations during the armed conflict, including the massacre of prison inmates in 1986 known as El Fronton and the massacre of women and children peasants in the highland town of Cayara in 1988.

But how to pursue the strictures of neoliberal economics while at the same time pursuing a social policy that really reduces levels of inequality and economic exclusion? This is the key question. Figures from the INEI (Statistics Office) show how inequality (always difficult to measure precisely) grew as the economy grew under the previous President of Peru Alejandro Toledo.

Will García seek to stretch out his hand to engage with those who voted for Humala? The election results were a clear indication of the political divide between the country’s poorest and most politically disadvantaged, who voted – in the first and second rounds – predominantly for García’s rival Ollanta Humala.

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The Fujimori regime was characterised by authoritarianism and military interference in politics. President Alberto Fujimori was constitutionally elected in 1990 to serve a single, non-renewable five-year term of office. Within two years of his election, on April 6, 1992, he violated the 1979 constitution, closed down Congress and dismissed the Supreme Court. He also brought to an end a system of regional governments, introduced by the previous administration.
Following the closure of Congress, a new single-chamber legislature was elected (in which Fujimori supporters had an absolute majority), which proceeded to rewrite the constitution.

The new constitution was approved in a referendum held in 1993. Amongst other things, it removed the legal bar on presidential re-election. Accordingly, Fujimori stood successfully for re-election in 1995, winning himself a further five-year term. Fujimori's two main goals were to 'modernise' the Peruvian economy by following IMF policies of privatisation and opening the economy to foreign investment., and to crush the threat from armed opposition groups such as Sendero Luminoso.

Armed opposition groups
The fight against the rebel groups led to many human rights violations, but in June 1992 the leader of the Sendero Luminoso group Abimael Guzman was captured in Lima, and this marked the end of the group's campaign of violence. The other main rebel group the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was crushed at the start of 1997 when most of its leaders were shot to end their occupation of the Japanese ambassador's residence.

Fujimori's second term in office
President Fujimori's second term in office was marked by many arbitrary measures and by increasing poverty. As opposition to his regime grew, Fujimori became increasingly determined to hang on to power.

In 2000 Fujimori stood again for another five-year term. The opposition claimed that this was in breach of the constitution, but the president and his supporters argued that when he ran in 1995, this was the first time he had been elected under the new constitution, and that therefore he could legally stand for a further term. When a majority of the Constitutional Tribunal disagreed with this latter view, the pro-Fujimori majority in Congress passed a law dismissing them.

Although Fujimori won a narrow victory in the first round of voting in April 2000, few people in Peru or internationally recognised the legitimacy of the elections. The main opposition candidate Alejandro Toledo withdrew from the second round, but this did not prevent Fujimori from declaring himself the winner and starting a third term of office despite widespread opposition.

The downfall of the regime
It was not long before a huge public scandal swept him from power. Video recordings made by his unofficial intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Hundreds of these videos were discovered: in them, montesinos bribes, threatens and corrupts many leading representatives of of Peru's political, judicial, military and police forces.

The outcry at these revelations led to first Montesinos then the president himself fleeing Peru. Fujimori took refuge in Japan, where his parents were born, and on 19 November 2000 faxed his resignation to the Peruvian Congress. They refused to accept it, instead stripping him of his office on the grounds of 'moral incapacity'.

Fujimori remains in political exile in Japan, although the Peruvian authorities have repeatedly asked for him to be returned to face charges ranging from complicity in murder to corruption and embezzlement.
Vladimiro Montesinos was captured in Venezuela in June 2001, and brought back to Peru. He is currently in detention facing more than 50 charges, but is refusing to admit any guilt, and the trials against him are likely to drag on for years.

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Alianza Popular Revolucionario Americana (APRA)
Established by Victor Raul Haya de la Torre in the 1920s, it became Peru's first mass party. Initially left-wing in outlook, it became a conservative force during the 1950s at the height of the cold war. Its structure was highly vertical until Haya's death in 1979. APRA came to power for the first time in 1985 with the victory of Alan Garcia. His presidency ended in confusion after the economic collapse of the late 1980s, and the upsurge of violence and counter-insurgency campaigns. During the decade of Fujimori's rule, it seemed as though the APRA party had withered away completely - in the 2000 elections they won only1.1% of the vote. But with the return of their charismatic young leader Alan Garcia for the 2001 elections, APRA was revitalised. It is now the largest single party in Congress, and in the regional elections of November 2002, won 12 of the 25 regional government presidencies. As the party with the longest history of organization and campaign experience, it is well placed to return to power in 2005.

Acción Popular (AP)
Acción Popular was founded by Fernando Belaunde Terry in 1956. and has lately resufaced with Valentín Paniagua as the leader. But although Paniagua emerged from the interim presidency last year well loved, it seems it will need more than this for Acción popular to become a main contender in the political arena.

Partido Popular Cristiano (PPC)
There has also been a re-emergence of the PPC, who form part of the electoral coalition Unidad Nacional. As a coalition the part has been able to widen its traditionally Lima-based middle to upper class support base. It achieved 21 % of the vote in the first round of the elections in 2001.

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