Everything about Alan Garc A totally explained
Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (born
May 23,
1949 in
Lima) is the current President of
Peru, having won the
2006 elections on
June 4,
2006 in a run-off against
Union for Peru candidate
Ollanta Humala. He is the leader of the
Peruvian Aprista Party and the only APRA party member ever to have served as
President of Peru. He served a first term as President from 1985 to 1990. His first term was marked by a severe economic crisis, social unrest and violence. He ran unsuccessfully for the Presidency in 2001, losing in a run-off to
Alejandro Toledo.
Early years
García was born in
Lima into a middle-class family with close ties to the already established
APRA party. His father, Carlos García Ronceros, was the secretary of APRA during the government of
Manuel A. Odría, which had declared the party illegal. Given his political militancy, his father was later arrested and imprisoned, leaving him alienated from his family and not meeting his son Alan until five years later.
García studied at the Colegio Nacional José María Eguren in
Barranco, a district of
Lima. He went on to university studies at the
Pontificia Universidad Católica and later earned his law degree at the
National University of San Marcos in 1971. Afterwards, he moved to
Europe, attending the
Universidad Complutense in
Madrid, where he studied and completed his thesis on
constitutional law, earning himself a doctorate in
political science. In 1973, he went on to the
University of Paris, where he obtained a degree in
sociology. García lived several years in
Paris but, in 1978,
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, the elder leader of the
APRA party (who would die one year later), urged him to return to political life in Peru, after the
Morales Bermúdez administration presided over the return to civilian government and allowed the reorganization of other political parties.
First Presidency
García won the elections on
April 14,
1985 with 45% of the votes. Since he didn't receive the 50% of the votes required to win the presidency, García had to enter a run-off against
Alfonso Barrantes (former leftist mayor of Lima) of the
United Left party. Barrantes, however, retired and decided not to enter the run-off, saying he didn't want to prolong the political uncertainty of the country. García was thus declared president on
June 1 and officially took power on
July 28,
1985. For the first time in its sixty-year history, the
APRA party had come to power in Peru. Aged only 36, García was dubbed "
Latin America's
Kennedy," becoming the region's youngest president at the time.
Despite his initial popularity among Peruvian voters, 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 the five years, thereby profoundly destabilizing the Peruvian economy. Owing to such chronic inflation, the Peruvian currency, the
sol, was replaced by the
Inti in mid-1985, which itself was replaced by the
nuevo sol ("new sun") in July 1991, at which time the new sol had a cumulative value of one billion (1,000,000,000) old soles. During García's administration, the per capita annual income of Peruvians fell to $720 (below the level of 1960) and Peru's
GDP dropped 20%. By the end of his term, national reserves were a negative $900 million.
According to studies of the
National Institute of Statistics and Informatics and the
United Nations Development Programme, around the start of his presidency, 41.6% of Peruvians lived in poverty. During his presidency, this percentage increased by 13% (to 55%) in 1991. García also made an attempt to
nationalize the banking and insurance industries. He incurred the wrath of the
International Monetary Fund and the financial community by unilaterally declaring a limit on debt repayment equal to 10% of the
Gross National Product, thereby isolating Peru from the international financial markets.
The economic turbulence exacerbated social tensions in Peru and contributed in part to the rise of the violent rebel movement
Shining Path, which launched the
internal conflict in Peru and began attacking electric towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, allegedly committing human rights violations which are still under investigation. These include the
Accomarca massacre, where 47
campesinos were gunned to death by the Peruvian armed forces in August 1985, the
Cayara massacre (May 1988) in which some thirty were killed and dozens disappeared, and
the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (
El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986. According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600
forced disappearances took place during García's presidency. His own personal involvement in these events isn't clear. García was allegedly tied to the paramilitary
Rodrigo Franco Command, which is accused of carrying out political murders in Peru during García's presidency. A US
declassified report, written in late 1987, said that Garcia's party, APRA, and top government officials were running a
paramilitary group, responsible for the attempted bombing of the
El Diario newspaper, then linked to Shining Path, sent people to train in
North Korea and may have been involved in executions . According to investigative journalist
Lucy Komisar, the report made it clear that it believed that García was giving the orders There were charges of corruption involved in this decision, as at the same time a law was struck down by Congress which prevented anyone who had been investigated for charges of corruption in a public office to run for president (what his supporters in Congress dubbed the "anti-Alan law"). García couldn't justify how he'd homes in the richest neighbourhoods of Bogotá and Paris, in addition to having his daughter enrolled in a top private school in France, if his only alleged income was from being an occasional guest speaker and the author of a few books with poor sales. His long-time ally
Jorge Del Castillo represented him as his lawyer and performed very heavy lobbying for allowing García to legally return to Peru. After Castillo was elected to Congress, he'd much more leverage for García's defence.
After living eight years and ten months in neighbouring
Colombia and in
France, he returned to Peru in 2001, following
Alberto Fujimori's resignation from the presidency. As it had been rumoured for many years, García ran for president in the new elections called by transitory president
Valentín Paniagua, with
Jorge Del Castillo as his campaign manager. García competed against some of his harshest critics and worst political enemies, including
Lourdes Flores Nano and
Fernando Olivera. García's theme during this election campaign was that he was the most experienced candidate and thus the most prepared, as he'd made mistakes before as President, and had learned from them. He attributed all the problems of the Peruvian economy in his first presidency to the economic problems of
Argentina and
Brazil at the time. He distanced himself from accusations that he'd been protected by Fujimori during his exile, and he'd switch the topic when he was asked about his endorsement of Fujimori in the 1990 election.
He finished a distant second in the first round, far behind
Alejandro Toledo, but just slightly above Flores Nano (by 1%), enough to take him to a run-off, as Toledo failed to obtain the 50% majority. During the campaign for the run-off Toledo's popularity decreased, while García's popularity increased with his characteristic rhetoric and classical oratory delivery, that had helped him being elected in 1985. García managed to obtain 48% of the vote in the run-off, losing by a close margin to
Alejandro Toledo. This was despite the movement "Voto Nulo" (vote in blank), led by Jaime Bayly, a popular writer and TV presenter, and Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of the famous novelist, in which celebrities asked Peruvian voters to vote for neither candidate and instead intentionally damage their vote cards or leave them blank. Since the
2001 election, García, as leader of the APRA party, led the main opposition.
García officially started his campaign for the
April 2006 presidential election in Lima on
February 18,
2005.
Ollanta Humala won the election with 30.62% of valid votes, followed by García, who got 24.32% (against
Lourdes Flores' 23.81%). As no candidate won a majority, a run-off was held on
June 4,
2006 between Humala and García. Preliminary official results gave García an advantage over his run-off opponent, who conceded defeat.
On
April 28,
2006, prior to the run-off, García became involved in a dispute with
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez as Chávez, for the second time in the Peruvian Presidential elections, declared his support for Ollanta Humala, García's opponent, and referred to García as a "robber", a "bandit", and "the
Carlos Andrés Pérez of Peru". García, in response, stated that Chávez was "not acting as a statesman" and challenged Chávez to a debate to be hypothetically hosted by
CNN. García also called on the
Organization of American States to intervene in the matter.
On
May 31,
2006, a few days before the second round election García's economic adviser Enrique Cornejo told the media that if García won in the second round his government would renew a $422 million aid package with the
International Monetary Fund. Anoop Singh, the IMF's Western Hemisphere Director, responded positively by saying he was "impressed by the vision of the president-elected for Peru, especially his commitment to applying prudent economic policy."
Second Presidency
On
July 28,
2006, García was sworn in as the new president of Peru after winning approximately 53% of the nationwide vote in the elections held on
June 4. He had huge support in Lima and the northern coast, but didn't get the votes of Humala's strongholds such as the southern region (mostly impoverished but including major cities as Cuzco and Arequipa) and the rain forest areas. Voting for him was dubbed by a third of the voters as "voting for the lesser of two evils": although many people in Peru had a very negative impression of García after his first presidency, they were scared by rumours that Humala would create a government based on
Fidel Castro's Cuba and would turn
Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, into the virtual ruler of Peru, due to his patronage of Humala's party. Humala denied these rumours, but his conflicting statements about his government's vision and
Hugo Chávez's strong campaigning for him created enough suspicions among voters to cost him the
ballotage.
With thirty-six seats, APRA has the second largest bloc in the 120-seat unicameral
Congress which was sworn in a couple of days before the President. With forty-five seats, Humala's
Union for Peru Party has the largest bloc, although it has divided in up to three factions.
Following his victory García stated that he "seeks good relations with Venezuela" and didn't intend to start a movement in the region against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. He stated that he'd review a
trade agreement between the United States and Peru established by the Toledo Administration before deciding to ratify the agreement. Although APRA's position towards the free trade agreement was qualified as ambiguous by their detractors, APRA had always sustained that they'd approve the agreement with proper compensations for wheat, cotton and yellow corn producers. On June 28, one month before García was sworn in, his party gave 25 of the 79 votes (almost one third of the votes) that ratified the agreement in the Peruvian Congress, one month prior to the new legislature that will include the Union for Peru congressmen opposed to the agreement with the USA. The new Congress will still include a majority favourable to the free trade pact. Peru now awaits the agreement to be voted in the
United States Congress.
On his first speech as President García said that he'd appoint a Finance Minister who was neither "an orthodox market liberal" nor a person "excessively in favour of state intervention in the economy". Newspapers in Lima published that APRA was looking for collaboration with the famous Peruvian economist
Hernando de Soto, possibly as Prime Minister. However, the position of Prime Minister was given to
Jorge Del Castillo, his long time collaborator. According to the BBC, in private interviews García has stated his interest in a possible future trade agreement with Brazil and considers himself "an admirer" of Brazilian President
Lula da Silva.
In press conferences with the foreign press García has acknowledged that the support Humala had received in the election "could not be ignored". García, in a recognition of future domestic politics with a UPP controlled Congress, was quoted as saying "Mr. Humala is an important political figure, and a President should consult with different political factions".
President Chávez of Venezuela responded to García's comments on his show
Aló Presidente by stating that it was Alan García who owed him an apology saying "the only way relations between the two countries can be restored is if Peru's elected President [García] gives an explanation and offers an apology to the Venezuelan people. He started throwing stones". Chávez also questioned the legitimacy of the election citing 1.2 million invalid ballots and a margin of victory of 600,000 votes, although he didn't offer evidence for his remarks. García, attending an invitation to meet Brazilian president Lula da Silva, responded back to Chávez by stating: "accept your defeat in silence. Don't ask me to apologize for something arising from interference and remarks that are unacceptable under international law."
Differences with Chávez were left behind after García and he ended their controversy at the II South American Community of Nations Summit.
On
July 20,
2006 García named
Luis Carranza, a former executive at
Spain-based
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Central Bank director and deputy finance chief from August 2004 to August 2005 in
Alejandro Toledo's government, as Finance Minister of his new government. The appointment was welcomed by some detractors of García's fiscal policies during his first administration. Mario Huamán Rivera, the President of Peru's largest trade union the
Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú (General Workers Confederation of Peru), however has attacked the appointment stating that "it looks as though Alan García isn't going to fulfil his promise to change economic policy".
On the day before his inauguration García formally named his cabinet including former Secretary-General of the APRA party and re-elected Congressman
Jorge del Castillo as Prime Minister, Luis Carranza as Minister of Finances and Economy, and José Antonio García Belaúnde as Foreign Affairs Minister. García was inaugurated as President of Peru on July 28, 2006.
During his campaign, García declared that he supports death penalty for rapists of minors; he's repeated this stance while in office. He has even proposed a polemic law on the matter, which would modify the Criminal Code. Although the issue seemed to be stalled, García widened the range of his proposal for death penalty, including terrorists onto the list of those who could receive it.
On
October 23,
2006, García publicly admitted that he'd had a child outside of marriage, although he'd fully recognized him as his own. With his wife standing by his side, García told the media the name of the one year and ten-month old child: Federico Danton García Cheesman. García said that the child resulted from an affair he conducted between 2004-2005 when he was separated from his wife.
César Hildebrandt, the Peruvian journalist who revealed García's 6th child, was fired from the newspaper
La Primera newspaper three days after García's public declaration. It is a matter of debate if his sacking had to do with the revelation or with the imprecise allegations he issued in order to make the episode into a bigger story.
García faced his first major political defeat of his second term in office on January 11, 2007 when his proposal to introduce the death penalty as a punishment for captured
Shining Path rebels was rejected by
Congress in a vote of 49 to 26. García had promised to introduce the death penalty for Shining Path rebels during the
2006 Presidential election. Following the defeat of the proposal García suggested a national referendum on the issue but a referendum is expected to be blocked by Congress. Legislators who voted against the bill stated that it would be a breach of the
American Convention on Human Rights to which Peru is a signatory. Approximately three thousand supporters of the proposal marched in Lima holding up photos of victims of attacks by the Shining Path.
Foreign affairs
After being elected, but before his inauguration, García sought to heal the relationship with Chile, which had been disturbed after some differences between the governments of
Alejandro Toledo and
Ricardo Lagos and severely impaired by the former Peruvian President
Alberto Fujimori's extradition affair. García's intentions were well-received by
Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile, as she and García met and struck some pre-agreements. These conversations would eventually lead to the final draft of a landmark economic agreement with Chile a month after García was sworn in.
On
November 9,
2006, President Alan García signed twelve commercial agreements with
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of
Brazil, strengthening the relationship between both countries. As part of the
IIRSA program and continuing integration efforts -including the August 2006 negotiations between
Petrobras and
PETROPERU-, these new agreements seek to further bilateral cooperation.
García offered Peruvian hydropower to meet Brazil's growing energy needs, although further details were not disclosed.
García mended relations with
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez on
December 9,
2006 during the second
South American Community of Nations summit in
Cochabamba,
Bolivia. García told the Peruvian broadcaster
Radio Programas del Perú that "the two of us are well-mannered and cordial people, so any kind of argument, any previously made statements, remain a closed chapter" referring to disputes between the two leaders during the
2006 Peruvian Presidential election where Chavez supported García's opponent
Ollanta Humala.
Council of Ministers
Published works
Alan García is the author of several books on the Peruvian reality and Latin America. Most of them may be found in the
National Library of Peru. His published works include the following:
- 1988
- 1989
- 1989
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1994
- 1997
- 1997
- 1999
- 2000
- 2003
- 2005
Further Information
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