aprismo and the new peruvian administration

Aprismo and the New Peruvian AdministrationAuthor(s): Eugenio Chang-RodriguezSource: Journal of Inter-American Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Jul., 1962), pp. 426-430Published by: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of MiamiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/164960 .

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JOURNAL OF INTER-AMERICAN STUDIES

APRISMO AND THE NEW PERUVIAN ADMINISTRATION

Eugenio Chang-Rodriguez As this article goes to press, the official count of the votes in the

Peruvian elections of June 10th has not been completed. The official results will not be known until the last week of June, 1962, when the National Electoral Court completes the tally of the last votes coming by mule from the remote provinces. Early unofficial tallies widely spread by an international news agency, whose correspondent is also

working in Lima for the rabid anti-Aprista daily, gave the lead to Fer- nando Belaunde Terry, basing its estimates probably on the balloting of the districts which indeed favored the Popular Action Party. La Prensa and other non-partisan newspapers, with a national network of

correspondents filing returns from the interior, have drawn up totals which give Victor Raul Haya de la Torre a lead and conclude that the

Aprista slates will win. There are some foreign tabulators, however, who are not so confident with regard to the ultimate results and feel that the election of the new president might have to be made by the new

Congress elected, which will convene on July 28, Peru's national day. The electoral law prescribes that if no candidate receives one third of the valid votes cast, Congress must choose the President for the next six-

year term.

Besides Haya de la Torre and Belaunde, there are five other presi- dential candidates, but in view of the computations already made, none of them is likely to upset the results which ultimately will give the

triumph to either the Apristas or the candidates of the Popular Action

party. General Manuel A. Odria, who is running in third place, is

already making overtures to the Apristas and Belaundistas in order to

join forces with one of the two and create a coalition government. This is a possibility that should not be discarded particularly if none of the main contenders obtains the necessary minimum votes to win and his

party fails to have a clear majority in the next Congress composed of

fifty-five Senators and 186 Deputies.

The importance of this election can be gauged by the wide cover-

age it has received in United States news media. While awaiting the

results, the two most influential dailies of New York published important editorials. On June 16, The New York Times, after stressing that "no

country is more in danger of social revolution," observed: "The Indians have at last been awakened to the injustice of their misery, and Apra played a major role in this education. When the showdown comes, we all hope it will be guided by the radical but evolutionary programs of the Alliance for Progress. The alternative could easily be violence. This is the basic problem the next President will face." The New York

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Herald Tribune for its part, stated on June 16 that, "It is unfortunate that the armed forces, instead of waiting for the official word, jumped the gun and announced the results of a poll of their own in favor of Be- launde." Very appropriately the editorial writer declares: "Those of us who take seriously the Charter of the Organization of American States would regard military violation of the popular will as a blow not only against the Peruvian people but against all American people de- dicated to the practice of democracy as the best hope for an alternative to dictatorship either of the Right or of the Left." The final paragraph advises: "If the Peruvian armed forces were made aware of moral and even material sanctions for misbehavior, the ugly precedent set by Argentina could be stopped in Peru."

When we remember that in 1948, the establishment of the Odria dictatorship also caused a political chain reaction in other parts of the continent, it is not surprising that the Peruvian 1962 elections are con- sidered so important since they could determine another Latin-American political trend. The inter-relation of political phenomena on this continent is an historical fact already recognized. Significant events in one country have corresponding repercussions in other areas. The civil wars and factional quarrels among conquistadores, the tug-of-war between Church and civil servants, the struggle for independence, and the emergence of barbarian and enlightened dictatorships are but a few examples.

In Peru more than anywhere else, the struggle for autonomy has remained an unfinished revolution since the turn of the last century, and the magnitude of the Peruvian drama cannot even be described clearly by the staggering figures of official statistics. The average per capita income of 120 dollars a year does not tell us enough when one considers the million of Indians and mestizos who live in infra-human conditions with an annual income below the national average. When we read that 80 per cent of the houses are unsanitary, we are not informed about the abject poverty of the barriadas or slums surrounding Lima; when we learn that 60 per cent of the people are illiterate, we are given only a glimpse of this depressing picture, for there are a million Indians who cannot even speak the official language. The educational problem is serious at all levels. Peru has, for instance, barely one third as many college students as the City University of New York. If to this incom- plete list of discouraging figures we add population pressure, which will

probably double the number of Peruvians in 25 years and make their

country a nation of 40 million hungry inhabitants by 1999, we can under- stand why it is no longer an exaggerated metaphor to say that Peruvians are sitting on an erupting volcano.

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When one becomes familiar with the Peruvian crisis and places it within the framework of the continental panorama, one cannot help seeing the 1962 elections in a different light.

Now that the Apristas are so close to their triumph in Peru, let us turn to a brief discussion of their program in order to comprehend the type of administration they would attempt to give to their country. Regardless of the final electoral outcome for the presidency, the Apristas will have at any rate sufficient force in the new Congress to press for the adoption of their views.

The Apristas have two political programs: the maximum program, applicable to all of Latin America, and the minimum program, to be worked out by each country according to its peculiar needs.

The first is a long-range platform aimed at creation of a democratic and powerful United States of Indoamerica. It proposes that all the countries of this hemisphere adopt a genuine good-neighbor policy, inspired by the principle of inter-Americanism without imperialism. To guarantee democratic institutions and to meet the Communist chal-

lenge, Haya de la Torre has proposed the drafting of a continental

super-Constitution, containing the basic democratic principles of the

twenty-one national constitutions. In this Magna Carta there would be a common bill of rights to be guaranteed by the twenty-one govern- ments. Furthermore, he has proposed the establishment of an inter- American Court of Justice to penalize the violators of the continental

Magna Carta and solve inter-American disputes.

To strengthen the economy, the founder of Aprismo has proposed the creation of an Inter-American Customs Union and an Inter-Amer- ican Bank with branches in every country to stimulate commerce and

productive investment. The idea of the common market was first offered by Haya de la Torre in Mexico in 1928, and still remains one of the basic items of the maximum program.

The United States of Indoamerica would include all the territory south of the United States, divided into economic zones with new borders

replacing the present artificial limits: 1) Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Islands; 2) the five Andean countries liberated by Bolivar

(Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia;) 3) the River Plata countries and Chile; and 4) Brazil.

The founder of Aprismo has insisted upon the use of the name Indo- america because for him it is more descriptive than any other term. It takes into consideration the continent's main components: the indigenous base and extra-continental contributions. To him Indoamerica is more realistic than Hispanic America and Iberoamerica, both of which have

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a colonial connotation. It is also more appropriate than the French term Latin America, which ignores Indian, Negro, Anglo-Saxon, and Oriental contributions. Indoamerica, of course, is a more comprehen- sive name than Spanish America or Pan America.

The minimum program of the Peruvian Aprista party serves as an example of a domestic platform. It proposes an economic reorganiza- tion of the country after setting up an economic congress and a national financial corporation. The economic congress would be formed by the

representatives of nationals and foreigners participating in the country's economy: labor, management, government, and the professions. It would be an advisory agency in charge of economic planning. The national financial corporation would carry out the projects suggested by the economic congress and adopted by the regular political organs of the state.

Other planks of the platform include administrative decentralization, a new geographic division according to an economic criterion, and the organization of producer and consumer cooperatives with the aid of a cooperative bank.

Much of the history of Latin America deals with the clash between reactionary landowners and progressive forces - the former trying to prolong the feudal system, and the latter attempting to industrialize and to develop new sources of capital besides agriculture. In Peru, as in most of Latin America, feudalistic practices prevented the develop- ment of capitalism. The powerful hacendados blocked the growth of industrialization that would draw the peasants from their fiefs, destroy- ing the real foundation of their wealth. To change this hampered economy, the Apristas propose a planned agrarian reform to be carried out gradually without disrupting production.

The minimum program contemplates also the incorporation of the Indian population into the moder state. It desires to redeem the Indians from bondage, not because they are Indians, but because

they are exploited. Aprismo makes no racial distinction, since in Peru there have been good and bad Indians, before and after Felipillo, the Indian traitor who aided Pizarro. It is true that most of the Indians have been exploited, but there have been some who were exploiters and oppressors. The Apristas are opposed to turning the clock back and reviving the empire of the Incas, nor do they want to stop the clock and place the Indians on reservations. The Indians, like all other ethnic

groups, must go forward.

Some of the proposals of Aprismo are neither new nor original. For

example, there is nothing startling about planning to open more schools, train more teachers and educate all classes. Yet, simple measures like

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these in a country kept in darkness for so long are immediately branded as revolutionary. When the Apristas enjoyed political influence in 1946, under their initiative Congress passed a bill offering free second- ary education. Likewise, the Peruvian Apristas want the municipal government to be elected directly by the people. Their opponents are against this reform, preferring to continue the present practice of ap- pointment of city officials by the central government in Lima.

Aprismo is also an ethical organization, insisting on the improvement of the morals of the people. Its members do not seek power for

power's sake, convinced as they are that the crisis in Latin America is in great measure a moral crisis. Their organization, besides being a political party, is a way of life with a distinctive philosophy and high moral standards. The Peruvian Apristas, for example, see themselves as crusaders against immorality in the political, economic, and social spheres. They desire the material transformation of their country to be accompanied by a spiritual renaissance founded on high moral standards in all social classes. And how can they achieve this national transformation? By education and by conducting themselves as exam-

ples of morality. They have insisted upon this aspect with the explana- tion that their party is a way of life, a pattern of conduct and civic action, whose members must be, above all, men of strong moral fibre, with clean records and an awareness of their patriotic and social duties.

From what we have just summarized, it may be concluded that

Aprismo is in reality neither a political party advocating a guided democratic socialism with capitalistic undertones, nor a political force striving for a guided democratic capitalism with socialistic undertones. Apris- mo is in reality not a new ism, but a political conception of life in all its phases. Aprismo is something new in the history of political thinking because it has introduced relativism and original concepts into its political philosophy. The unique character of Latin America, with its

peculiar necessities, makes Aprismo the key and answer to its future. The national elections of Peru have opened the way to application of this platform. The victory of the Apristas would mean that true de-

mocracy, adapted to Latin America, will prevail.

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aprismo and the new peruvian administration

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