Peru Education

Education
The literacy rate in Peru has increased substantially as a result of greater emphasis on education. According to estimates, the adult literate population rose from 42 percent in 1940 to about 85 percent in the mid-1980s. Public basic education in Peru is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 15. Many children in rural areas do not attend secondary school, however, because of a lack of facilities. In the late 1980s some 3.7 million pupils attended elementary schools, and about 1.7 million students were enrolled in secondary and vocational schools.
Peru has more than 45 institutions of higher education, including the National University of San Marcos, in Lima (1551); the National University of Central Peru (1962), in Huancayo; the National University of San Agustín (1828), in Arequipa; the National University of San Antonio Abad (1962), in Cuzco; and the National University of La Libertad (1824), in Trujillo. The National Conservatory of Music (1908) is in Lima. Some 576,800 students attended institutions of higher education in the late 1980s.

Peru, country in west central South America, bounded on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil and Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The area of Peru, including several offshore islands, is 1,280,000 sq km (496,225 sq mi), making it third in size (after Brazil and Argentina) of South American countries. Lima is the country's capital and chief commercial center.

Land and Resources
Peru may be divided into three main topographical regions: the coastal plain, the sierra, and the montaña.
The coastal plain is an arid, elongated stretch of land extending the entire length of the country and varying in width from about 65 to 160 km (about 40 to 100 mi). The plain has most of the cities and industries of Peru, but few adequate harbors. A number of rivers flow through the region to the Pacific. Parallel to and lying east of the coastal plain is the sierra, an upland region with towering mountain ranges of the Andes, lofty plateaus, and deep gorges and valleys. The main range is the Cordillera Occidental; other ranges include the Cordillera Oriental, the Cordillera Central, and a number of lesser chains. The sierra, which covers some 30 percent of the country's land area, traverses the country from southeast to northwest and varies in width from about 400 km (about 250 mi) in the south to about 240 km (about 150 mi) in the north; the average height is some 3660 m (some 12,000 ft). Several of the highest peaks in the world are located in the various sierran cordilleras and plateaus, notably Huascarán (6768 m/22,205 ft), the highest in Peru. Lake Titicaca is in the southeast. Earthquakes occur in the sierra.
In the northeast the sierra slopes downward to a vast tropical plain, the selvas, extending to the Brazilian border and forming part of the Amazon Basin. The forested sierran slopes and a somewhat less elevated region are collectively designated the montaña. The montaña attains a maximum width of about 965 km (about 600 mi) in the north and constitutes some 60 percent of the Peruvian land area; it is covered with thick tropical forests in the west and with dense tropical vegetation in the center and east. As a result, the region remains largely unexplored and undeveloped.

Rivers and Lakes
Peru has three main drainage systems. One comprises about 50 torrential streams that rise in the sierra and descend steeply to the coastal plain. The second comprises the tributaries of the Amazon River in the montaña region. In the third the principal feature is Lake Titicaca, which drains into Lake Poopó in Bolivia through the Desaguadero River.
The Napo, Tigre, and Pastaza rivers rise in Ecuador and flow into Peru. The latter two streams are tributaries of the Marañón River, and the Napo empties into the Amazon River. The border between Peru and Colombia is delineated by the Putumayo River.

Climate
The climate of Peru varies widely, ranging from tropical in the montaña to arctic in the highest mountains of the Andes.
In the coastal plain the temperature is normally equable, averaging about 20° C (about 68° F) throughout the year. The coastal climate is moderated by winds blowing from the cool offshore current known as the Peru, or Humboldt, Current. The coast receives less than 51 mm (less than 2 in) of precipitation each year, largely because the cordilleras receive most of the rain carried by the trade winds from the east. Mist-laden clouds known as garúa shroud many of the slopes of the sierra from June to October, providing enough moisture to support grasslands.
In the sierra the temperature ranges seasonally from about -7° to 21° C (about 20° to 70° F). Rainfall is usually scanty, but in some localities heavy rains fall from October to April. In Cuzco, in the southeastern sierra, annual rainfall averages some 815 mm (some 32 in).
The montaña region is extremely hot and humid, although at higher altitudes it is less so. The prevailing easterlies blowing across that region gather moisture that is later deposited on the eastern Andean slopes. Annual rainfall in some districts averages as much as 3810 mm (as much as 150 in). Most of this rain, which principally falls from November through April, eventually drains back to the montaña.

Natural Resources
Mineral deposits, the primary resources of Peru, include petroleum, found on the northwestern coast and in the Amazon Basin; copper in northwestern Peru; and substantial deposits of silver, iron ore, gold, lead, and zinc throughout the cordilleras. Also important are the forests, especially the stands of cedar, oak, and mahogany.

Plants and Animals
The plant life of the three main geographical regions varies widely. The vast, fertile montaña contains a rich profusion of trees, plants, and jungle vines, including mahogany, cedar, rubber, and cinchona trees, sarsaparilla and vanilla plants, and a variety of exotic tropical flowers. The rugged sierra supports a relatively sparse plant life. Sierra vegetation is largely xerophytic—that is, adapted to survival on a restricted supply of water. Such growths include mesquite, cactus, scrub and fodder grasses, and eucalyptus plants. The dry, sandy reaches of the coastal plain support mainly desert vegetation, such as shrubs, grasses, and tuberous plants.
The wildlife of Peru is limited in number and variety. The coastal plain and offshore islands support gulls and terns and some albatrosses, but little other wildlife except lizards, insects, tarantulas, and scorpions. Peruvian ocean waters abound in anchovy, pilchard, haddock, sole, mackerel, smelt, flounder, lobster, shrimp, and other marine species. In the sierra are found the llama, alpaca, vicuña, chinchilla, and huanaco. Birds of the region include the giant condor, robin, phoebe, flycatcher, finch, partridge, duck, and goose. Lake Titicaca and other sierran bodies of water teem with fish. Animals of the tropical montaña include the jaguar, cougar, armadillo, peccary, tapir, anteater, several dozen species of monkey, alligator, turtle, and a variety of snakes and insects; among the birds are the parrot, the flamingo, and other tropical species.

Population
About 45 percent of Peru's inhabitants are Native Americans, some of whom are descended from the Inca who established a great civilization in the region by the 15th century. Some 37 percent of the country's people are mestizos, persons of mixed white (mainly Spanish) and Native American background. About 15 percent of Peruvians are of unmixed white descent, and many of the remainder are of black African extraction. About 70 percent of the people live in urban areas.

Population Characteristics
The population of Peru (1993 estimate) was 23,210,352, giving the country an estimated overall population density of about 18 people per sq km (about 47 per sq mi). The distribution, however, is uneven, with about 50 percent of the people inhabiting the sierra region and about 40 percent inhabiting the coastal plain.

Political Divisions
For administrative purposes, Peru is divided into 25 departmental capital councils.

Principal Cities
The largest city in Peru is Lima (population, 1989 estimate, 6,233,800), the country's capital and chief commercial center. Other important cities include Arequipa (612,100), an industrial center; Trujillo (513,200), a commercial center; Chiclayo (409,600), in the sugar district; and Cuzco (264,400), famous for its Inca ruins. In addition, Callao (1985 estimate, 512,200), near Lima, is a major port.

Language and Religion
Spanish, spoken by some 70 percent of the people, was the sole official language of Peru until 1975, when Quechua, one of the principal languages of the Native Americans, also was made an official language. English and Aymará, another Native American language, are also spoken.
More than 90 percent of Peruvians adhere to the Roman Catholic religion. In accordance with a law passed in 1915, Roman Catholicism is the established religion of the country. Other religions are permitted and tolerated, and small numbers of Protestants, Jews, and Muslims live in Peru.


Culture
The Native American heritage of Peru is one of the richest in South America. Although Spain gave Peru its language, religion, and rulers, the civilization of the Inca has left its traces throughout Peruvian culture. Archaeological excavations have uncovered monumental Native American remains. Architecture of the Spanish colonial period, a fusion of Spanish and Native American forms, is called Creole. In art today, the indigenist school pointedly interprets 20th-century Peru in a Native American mode. The Native American pentatonic musical scale is still used, as are ancient instruments such as conch shells, flutes, ocarina, and panpipes. See LATIN AMERICAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE; LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE; LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC.
The descendants of the Quechua and Aymará Native Americans populate the Andean highlands. Many do not speak Spanish and have preserved the customs and folklore of their ancestors. Along the coast and in the highland cities, the whites, mestizos, and blacks live in a modern Western style. In contrast to these settlements are the jungles of eastern Peru, where more isolated groups of Native Americans retain lifestyles similar to those of their ancestors.

Libraries
Some of the most important libraries in Peru are located in the larger cities and are affiliated with the major universities. Within the various libraries of the National University of San Marcos in Lima are more than 450,000 volumes. The National Library (1821), in Lima, houses more than 3.2 million books and other items.

Museums
Museums throughout the country display Peruvian art and archaeological artifacts. Notable museums include the Museum of Art, the Rafael Larco Herrera Archaeological Museum, the Javier Prado Natural History Museum, and the National Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, all in Lima; the Military History Museum of Peru, in Callao; and archaeological museums in Arequipa, Cuzco, Huancayo, and Trujillo.

Economy
Peru's gross domestic product (GDP) in the late 1980s was $19.6 billion, or about $920 per capita. Although the economy remains primarily agricultural, the mining and fishing industries have become increasingly important. Peru relies primarily on the export of raw materials—chiefly minerals, farm products, and fish meal—to earn foreign exchange for importing machinery and manufactured goods. During the late 1980s, guerrilla violence, rampant inflation, chronic budget deficits, and drought combined to drive the country to the brink of fiscal insolvency. However, in 1990 the government imposed an austerity program that removed price controls and ended subsidies on many basic items and allowed the inti, the national currency, to float against the United States dollar.

Agriculture
About 35 percent of Peru's working population is engaged in farming. Most of the coastal area is devoted to the raising of export crops; on the montaña and the sierra are mainly grown crops for local consumption. Many farms in Peru are very small and are used to produce subsistence crops; the country also has large cooperative farms. The chief agricultural products, together with the approximate annual yield (in metric tons) in the late 1980s, were sugarcane (6.2 million), potatoes (2 million), rice (1.1 million), corn (880,000), seed cotton (280,000), coffee (103,000), and wheat (134,000). Peru is the world's leading grower of coca, from which the drug cocaine is refined.
The livestock population included about 3.9 million cattle, 13.3 million sheep, 1.7 million goats, 2.4 million hogs, 875,000 horses and mules, and 52 million poultry. Llamas, sheep, and vicuñas provide wool, hides, and skins.

Forestry and Fishing
The forests covering 54 percent of Peru's land area have not been significantly exploited. Forest products include balsa lumber and balata gum, rubber, and a variety of medicinal plants. Notable among the latter is the cinchona plant, from which quinine is derived. The annual roundwood harvest in the late 1980s was 7.7 million cu m (272 million cu ft).
The fishing industry is extremely important to the country's economy and accounts for a significant portion of Peru's exports. It underwent a remarkable expansion after World War II (1939-1945); the catch in the late 1980s was about 5.6 million metric tons annually. More than three-fifths of the catch is anchovies, used for making fish meal, a product in which Peru leads the world.

Mining
The extractive industries figure significantly in the Peruvian economy. Peru ranks as one of the world's leading producers of copper, silver, lead, and zinc; petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, molybdenum, tungsten, and gold are extracted in significant quantities. Annual production in the late 1980s included 3.3 million metric tons of iron ore; 406,400 metric tons of copper; 2054 metric tons of silver; 203,950 metric tons of lead; and 612,500 metric tons of zinc. About 64.9 million barrels of crude petroleum were produced, along with 578.3 million cu m (20.4 billion cu ft) of natural gas.

Manufacturing
Much manufacturing in Peru is on a small scale, but a number of modern industries have been established since the 1950s along the Pacific coast. Traditional goods include textiles, clothing, food products, and handicrafts. Items produced in large modern plants include steel, refined petroleum, chemicals, processed minerals, motor vehicles, and fish meal.

Energy
In the late 1980s Peru had an installed electricity-generating capacity of approximately 3.7 million kw, and annual output was approximately 14.2 billion kwh. About three-quarters of the total electricity produced was generated in hydroelectric facilities.

Currency and Foreign Trade
The unit of currency in Peru is the inti, divided into 100 céntimos; after being allowed to float against the U.S. dollar, the inti fluctuated wildly at between 200,000 and 400,000 to the dollar in mid-1990. The Banco Central de Reserva del Perú (1922) is the central bank and bank of issue. All private domestic banks were nationalized in 1987.
Exports are more diversified in Peru than in most South American countries. The principal exports are petroleum, copper, lead, coffee, silver, fish meal, zinc, sugar, and iron ore. The chief export markets are the United States, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, and Great Britain. Exports earned about $2.7 billion annually in the late 1980s. The leading imports of Peru include electrical and electronic items, foodstuffs, metals, chemicals, and transportation equipment. The principal sources of these goods are the United States, Japan, Argentina, Germany, and Brazil. Imports cost about $2.8 billion annually in the late 1980s.

Transportation
Peru's system of railroads, highways, and airports has been expanded considerably since World War II. The country's mountains make surface transport difficult, however. In the late 1980s Peru had about 69,940 km (about 43,460 mi) of roads, of which 11 percent were paved. The main artery is a section of the Pan-American Highway, which traverses Peru from Ecuador to Chile, covering a distance of about 2495 km (about 1550 mi). The Trans-Andean Highway links Lima and Pucallpa. Peru also has about 2400 km (about 1490 mi) of railroads. One trans-Andean line, the Callao-Huancayo, ascends to some 4815 m (some 15,800 ft) above sea level, the highest point reached by any standard-gauge line in the world. The most notable inland waterway is the Amazon River, which is navigable by ship from the Atlantic Ocean to Iquitos in Peru. Lake Titicaca also serves as a waterway. Leading Peruvian seaports include Callao, Salaverry, Pacasmayo, Paita, and San Juan. The country's main international airports are situated near Lima, Cuzco, Iquitos, and Arequipa. Aeroperú, the national airline, offers domestic and international service.

Communications
Peru's telephone system, which was nationalized in 1970, has some 600,000 instruments. The country is served by more than 300 radio stations and 8 television stations. In the late 1980s about 4 million radios and 1.6 million television receivers were in use. In the same period the country had more than 70 daily newspapers. Dailies with large circulations included El Comercio, Expreso, Ojo, and La República, all published in Lima.

Labor
About 35 percent of Peru's labor force is engaged in agriculture. The next largest sectors are services and government, manufacturing, commerce, and construction. About 40 percent of wage workers belong to various labor unions. The main labor group is the Democratic Syndical Front, which includes the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers.

Government
Under the Peruvian constitution, effective in 1980, the chief executive and head of state is the president, who is popularly elected to a five-year term. The president is assisted by a cabinet headed by a prime minister. The constitution provides for a bicameral legislature, the National Congress, consisting of a senate of 60 elected members (plus former constitutional presidents) and a chamber of deputies with 180 members. In a coup in April 1992, the constitution was suspended and the National Congress dissolved. The 1993 constitution established a unicameral national legislature in place of the former National Congress.

Political Parties
The 1990 presidential and legislative elections were dominated by candidates of the Change 90 movement, formed in 1989; the Democratic Front, known as Fredemo, established in 1988 as a center-right coalition; and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), founded in 1924.

Judiciary
The Peruvian supreme court, which sits in Lima, consists of a president and 12 other judges. The judicature also includes superior courts as well as courts of first instance.

Local Government
Local government is exercised through 25 departmental capital councils.

Health and Welfare
In the late 1980s the average life expectancy in Peru was 66 years for women and 61 years for men; the infant mortality rate was 69 per 1000 live births. Although the government has made some progress in improving medical facilities, sanitation remains inadequate, and a cholera epidemic in 1991 killed more than 1000 Peruvians and sickened another 150,000.

Defense
All males aged 20 to 25 years are liable for two years' service in the Peruvian military. The country's armed forces in the late 1980s included an army of 80,000 members, a navy of 25,000, and an air force of 15,000.

History
Evidence of settlement in Peru dates back thousands of years but, except for some scattered ruins, little is known of these early peoples. In about 1250 BC groups such as the Chavín, Chimú, Nazca, and Tiahuanaco migrated into the region from the north. The Chimú built the city of Chanchan about AD 1000, ruins of which remain today.

Inca Empire
The Inca, sometimes called peoples of the sun, were originally a warlike tribe living in a semiarid region of the southern sierra. From 1100 to 1300 the Inca moved north into the fertile Cuzco Valley. From there they overran the neighboring lands. By 1500 the Inca empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean east to the sources of the Paraguay and Amazon rivers and from the region of modern Quito in Ecuador south to the Maule River in Chile. This vast empire was a theocracy, organized along socialistic lines and ruled by an Inca, or emperor, who was worshiped as a divinity. Because the Inca realm contained extensive deposits of gold and silver, it became in the early 16th century a target of Spanish imperial ambitions in the New World.

Spanish Rule
In 1532 the Spanish soldier and adventurer Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru with a force of about 180 men. By guile and by force of arms Pizarro made the Inca Empire a Spanish possession. In 1535 Pizarro founded on the banks of the Rímac River the Peruvian capital city of Ciudad de los Reyes (Spanish for “City of the Kings”; present-day Lima). Subsequently, disputes over jurisdictional powers broke out among the Spanish conquerors, or conquistadors, and in 1541 a member of one of the conflicting Spanish factions assassinated Pizarro in Lima.
In 1542 a Spanish imperial council promulgated statutes called New Laws for the Indies, which were designed to put a stop to cruelties inflicted on the Native Americans. In the same year Spain created the viceroyalty of Peru, which comprised all Spanish South America and Panama, except what is now Venezuela.
The first Spanish viceroy arrived in Peru in 1544 and attempted to enforce the New Laws, but the conquistadores rebelled and, in 1546, killed the viceroy. Although the rebellion was crushed by Spanish government forces in 1548, the New Laws were never put into effect.
In 1569 the Spanish colonial administrator Francisco de Toledo arrived in Peru. During the ensuing 14 years he established a highly effective, although harshly repressive, system of government. Toledo's method of administration consisted of a major government of Spanish officials ruling through a minor government made up of Native Americans who dealt directly with the native population. This system lasted for almost 200 years.

Revolts for Independence
In 1780 a force of 60,000 Native Americans revolted against Spanish rule under the leadership of the Peruvian patriot José Gabriel Condorcanqui, who adopted the name of an ancestor, the Inca Tupac Amaru. Although initially successful, the uprising was crushed in 1781, and Condorcanqui was tortured and executed, as were thousands of his fellow revolutionaries. Another revolt was similarly put down in 1814. Subsequently, however, opposition to imperial rule grew throughout Spanish South America. The opposition was led largely by persons of Spanish descent born in South America, who long resented having a status inferior to that of the ruling minorities.
Freedom from Spanish rule, however, was imported to Peru by outsiders. In September 1820 the Argentine soldier and patriot Jose de San Martin, who had defeated the Spanish forces in Chile, landed an invasion army at the seaport of Pisco, Peru. On July 12, 1821, San Martín's forces entered Lima, which had been abandoned by Spanish troops. Peruvian independence was proclaimed formally on July 28, 1821. The struggle against the Spanish was continued later by the Venezuelan revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar, who entered Peru with his armies in 1822. In 1824, in the battles of Junín on August 6, and of Ayacucho on December 9, Bolívar's forces routed the Spanish See AYACUCHO, BATTLE OF; JUNIN, BATTLE OF.

Succession of Rulers
The following years were extremely chaotic. Bolívar, who left for Gran Colombia in 1826, was succeeded by a series of his so-called marshals of Ayacucho. Andrés Santa Cruz served until 1827, when he was replaced by José de La Mar, who was in turn supplanted by Agustín Gamarra in 1829. Gamarra ruled until 1833. In the meantime Santa Cruz had become president of Bolivia, and in 1836 he invaded Peru, establishing a confederation of the two countries that lasted three years. After that, Gamarra took power again. The country, however, enjoyed no peace until 1845, when Ramon Castilla, another veteran of Ayacucho, seized the presidency. Fortunately, he proved to be an able ruler, who during his two terms in office (1845-1851 and 1855-1862) initiated many important reforms, including the abolition of slavery, the construction of railroads and telegraph facilities, and the adoption in 1860 of a liberal constitution. Castilla also began exploitation of the country's rich guano and nitrate deposits. In 1864 these deposits involved Peru in a war with Spain, which had seized the guano-rich Chincha Islands. Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile aided Peru, defeating the Spanish forces in 1866. The resulting treaty of 1879 constituted the first formal Spanish recognition of Peruvian sovereignty.
Peru was badly defeated by Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). The war severely depleted Peruvian financial reserves and placed subsequent relations between the two countries under a continuing strain. For the next 25 years Peru was ruled by a succession of dictators.

Foundation of APRA
In 1908 a program of economic reform was instituted by President Augusto Leguía y Salcedo. After his first term (1908-1912), Leguía traveled in Great Britain and the United States, where he learned methods of banking and finance, which he later applied in Peru, and made many friends in the business community. He regained the presidency in 1919 by means of a military coup and thereafter ruled as virtual dictator. In 1924, during his rule, some exiled Peruvian intellectuals founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), which for more than 40 years was led by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre. As a result of its radical ideology, which called for basic reforms—especially in the conditions of the Native Americans—APRA was soon banned by Leguía (as it would be often later), but managed nevertheless to become the most influential of Peru's political parties. Before Leguía was overthrown in 1930, he had settled by a 1929 treaty the long-standing Tacna-Arica dispute with Chile.
On April 9, 1933, a new constitution was adopted. Later that month President Leguía's successor, Luis Sánchez Cerro, was assassinated. The next chief executive, General Óscar Raimundo Benavides, followed the new pattern of harsh political rule combined with marked economic advances. Manuel Prado y Ugarteche, who succeeded Benavides in 1939, was forced, however, to make concessions to the powerful reform sentiment fostered by APRA.

World War II and After
During World War II Peru gave limited support to the Allied cause. It broke off relations with the Axis powers in January 1942, but declared war against Germany and Japan only in February 1945 in order to be accepted as a charter member of the United Nations.
In 1945 a coalition of liberal and leftist parties, including APRA, elected as president José Luis Bustamante y Rivero. Bustamante instituted numerous liberal reforms; civil rights and freedom of the press were strengthened, and certain dictatorial powers of the president were abolished by constitutional amendment. In October 1948, however, rightist revolutionary leaders unseated Bustamante, seized the government, and outlawed APRA. On July 2, 1950, Manuel A. Odría, the leader of the 1948 coup d'état, was elected president. Odría's chief opponent was not placed on the ballot.
The Odría administration strengthened Peru's defenses, initiated a large public-works program, and concluded a series of economic and cultural pacts with Brazil that provided for closer cooperation between the two countries. Along with Chile and Ecuador, Peru also extended the country's territorial waters to 200 mi off the mainland. This action brought sharp protests from the United States, as many U.S. fishing vessels operated in South American waters.

Liberal Period
In the elections of 1956, former President Prado was again victorious. He immediately effected sweeping liberal reforms, but was soon hampered by strikes and riots occasioned by economic instability and runaway inflation. In 1959 the government introduced a program to restrict the outflow of dollars and encourage domestic industries by various means, including facilitating the import of capital goods. By May 1960 the economy had improved markedly, and foreign capital flowed into Peru in the form of loans and development contracts. In October of that year the government won approval of its policy of gradual nationalization of most Peruvian oil-production facilities.
In the presidential elections of 1962 no candidate received the necessary one-third of the votes, and a military junta took control. General Ricardo Pío Pérez Godoy was installed as president in July but was deposed by the junta in March 1963. Three months later Fernando Belaúnde Terry was elected president. During the second half of his administration, political opposition grew, and increasing inflation resulted in devaluation of the currency in 1967.

Military Rule
A long dispute over the claims of the International Petroleum Company (IPC), a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, in the operation of the rich La Brea y Pariñas oil fields was finally settled by the Belaúnde government in August 1968. Widespread disapproval of this settlement, however, forced the resignation of the cabinet on October 1, and two days later Belaúnde was ousted. The constitution was suspended and a military junta established, headed by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, president of the joint chiefs of staff. His government expropriated the IPC's assets, seriously straining relations with the United States. Relations deteriorated still further in February 1969, when a Peruvian gunboat accosted two U.S. fishing vessels off the Peruvian coast, claiming they were poaching in Peruvian waters. In 1970, despite these differences, U.S. relief supplies were quickly sent to Peru following an earthquake that killed about 50,000 Peruvians and left some 600,000 homeless.
In the early 1970s the Velasco government began its radical reform of the social and economic system. Among the major actions were seizure of foreign-owned ranchlands, the imposition of price controls on basic goods and services, and a sweeping land-reform law. The anchovy fishing industry, seriously hurt in 1972 by alteration of ocean currents, was nationalized in 1973. The 1973-1974 budget provided a 35-percent increase in spending to build up and diversify private industry. In June 1973 the World Bank extended credits of $470 million to Peru, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent Peru $30 million.

Return to Democracy
Another military coup toppled the Peruvian government on August 29, 1975, after a series of strikes and demonstrations expressed popular discontent with the ailing President Velasco. The following day, General Francisco Morales Bermúdez, who had been prime minister and minister of war under Velasco, was sworn in as president. His government announced that the country would be returned to democratic rule in 1980. That year, as promised, presidential elections were held. The winner, former President Belaúnde Terry, took office in July, when a new constitution came into effect. During the next five years, per capita income declined, the foreign debt rose, and violence by leftist guerrillas and government counterinsurgency forces mounted. In the 1985 presidential elections, voters chose the APRA candidate, Alan García Pérez, who failed to stem the country's rapid economic decline.
In an upset in the 1990 presidential election, Alberto Fujimori, an agricultural economist of Japanese descent, defeated novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. Fujimori, who ran in the runoff with left-wing support, imposed an austerity program to deal with hyperinflation and to restore Peru's ability to borrow money internationally. Economic hardship led to an escalation of violence by the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a leftist Guerrilla group. In April 1992 Fujimori, alleging that congress and the judiciary had blocked his efforts to suppress the drug trade and the guerrillas, suspended parts of the constitution and took full control of the government. In September several key Sendero Luminoso leaders were captured, and in November Fujimori's supporters won a solid majority in a legislative election. In 1993 the United States and other creditor nations resumed loans to Peru. On October 31, 1993, Peruvians voted to accept a new constitution, signed by Fujimori on December 29, that increased presidential power, created a new legislature, and allowed Fujimori to run for office again in 1995.

 

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