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Military Coup
General Velasco seized power in a bloodless military coup, deposing the democratically elected administration of Fernando Belaúnde. The General began the nationalization of the Peruvian Economy with the expropriation and nationalization of the American International Petroleum Company (IPC) oil fields located in the northern Peruvian oil port. Velasco's rule was driven by a desire to give justice to the poor and became known as Peruanismo -
Agricultural Reform
President Velasco gave the land to the people, saying: "Brothers, your landlords will no longer feed from your sweat." The badly mismanaged agrarian reform resulted in the creation of thousands of capital-poor and mostly uneducated small farmers whose production and distribution fell substantially. -
Educational Reform
The education reform of 1972 provided for bilingual education of the indigenous people of the Andes and the Amazon, which consisted nearly half of the population. In 1975 the Velasco government enacted a law making Quechua an official language of Peru equal to Spanish. -
El Tacnazo
El Tacnazo was a military coup launched by then Peruvian Prime Minister, General Francisco Morales Bermúdez against the administration of President Gen. Juan Velasco. It happened on the most southern state bordering with Chile, Tacna. -
National Strike
Peruvians citizens were tired of the hardships and injustices of the military government. They wanted change, Francisco Morales Bermúdez allowed elections to be held in 1980. -
New Constitution
The 1979 Constitution was promulgated by a Constituent Assembly elected in June 1978 following 10 years of military rule and replaced the suspended 1933 Constitution. It limited the president to a single five-year term and established a bicameral legislature. -
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Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)
Peru was dominated by the Maoist insurgent group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), and the Marxist–Leninist group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) It has been estimated that nearly 70,000 people have died due to their terrorism. The Shining Path believed that they could arrive at pure communism. They strictly refused the general elections on 1980. Burning ballots and causing chaos in Ayacucho, the night before the election was their first act of terror. -
Democratic Elections
Fernando Belaunde comes back from his exile.General elections were held in Peru for the first time since 1963, for the President and both houses of the Congress. The new constitution became effective with the re-election of deposed President Belaúnde Fernando Belaunde. He came back from his exile and won the presidential election with 44.9% of the vote -
Alan Garcia for President
The American Popular Revolutionary Alliance - Peruvian Aprista Party is a centre-left Peruvian political party. Their candidate,Alan Garcia, was elected President of Peru after winning the Peruvian general election with great support from the people. His youth, great oratory skills, and radical ideas won the people over. -
Economic Shock
Alan Garcia's administration expanded public expenditure and limited external debt payments. Despite his initial popularity, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% over his five-year term, profoundly destabilizing the Peruvian economy. -
1990 Elections
Alberto Fujimori was elected by a large popular margin, he had no organized or institutionalized base of support. There were countless theories as to why Fujimori was able to rise from virtual anonymity to president in the course of three months. More than anything else, the Fujimori tsunami, as it was called, was a rejection of all established political parties. -
"Self Coup 1992"
Incumbent President Fujimori announced to "temporarily dissolve" the Congress of the Republic and "reorganize" the Judicial Branch of the government. He then ordered the Army of Peru to shut down Congress. -
Leader of Shining Path Falls
Abimael Guzmán was finally captured in Lima, thanks to a secret military operation led by General Ketin Vidal. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. -
A Newer Constitution
The Constitution was drafted by the Democratic Constitutional Congress that was convened by President Alberto Fujimori during the Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992. A Democratic Constitutional Congress (CCD) was elected in 1992, and the final text was approved in a 1993 referendum. This new constitution gives more power to the President. -
1995 Election
General elections were held in Peru on 9 April 1995,the first under the 1993 constitution. Incumbent President Alberto Fujimori was re-elected with 64% of the vote, whilst his party won a majority of seats in the newly unicameral Congress. -
The Law Of "Authentic Interpretation"
Congress passed a law of "authentic interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A 1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed.[74] In late 1999, Fujimori announced that he would run for a third term. He claimed that his first presidency(1990) did not count since the Constitution of 1993 was not yet in place. -
The Rigged Election
Although Fujimori won the election, rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third term. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations in front of the presidential palace. Shortly after, Vladimiro Montesinos, head of Peruvian Intelligence was caught on tape bribing a senator and shipping illegal weapons to guerrilla groups. Fujimori's support virtually collapsed. New elections were called in which he would not be a candidate. -
Fujimori's End
As the Montesino scandal was being unraveled, it was only a matter of time until people realized that bribing senators was only the tip of the iceberg. Shorty after, Fujimori left Peru to attend a regional summit in Brunei. He later traveled to Japan and once there he announced plans to remain in the country and faxed his resignation letter to Congress. Interpol issued an arrest order for Fujimori however Japan was not amenable to the extradition of Fujimori.
