AP-DC Alliance

Fernando Belaúnde Terry, leader of Acción Popular (AP) won the elections allied with the Christian Democracy (DC). In Congress, representatives of both parties united to counteract the Coalition of Apristas and Odriists, and adopted the name of the ALLIANCE. The DC was actually a small party, recently founded, which had obtained a meager percentage of votes in 1962, but which had the ability to ally itself with AP in 1963 and thus managed to obtain senatorships and deputations, which it would not have been able to obtain by running individually in the elections. They also received some ministerial positions.[6]​.

Popular Action, due to its recent formation, was considered by some to be a federation of independents, in contrast to the APRA discipline curdled in several decades of clandestinity. Christian Democracy was also recently founded and was characterized by a more radical reformist doctrine postulated by its leader Héctor Cornejo Chávez.[7]​.

APRA-UNO Coalition

Belaúnde's opponents, Odría and Haya de la Torre, leaving aside their ideological differences and mutual grievances, formed a coalition to hinder the government's work from parliament. It is known as the APRA-UNO Coalition. This coalition was no longer so surprising considering that both groups had previously joined forces in the Monterrico Pact to allow coexistence during the Prado government. They had also joined forces to elect Odría as President in 1962.

The APRA-UNO coalition took place in a favorable scenario for these two parties. On the one hand, both groups in Congress formed an incontrovertible majority and, on the other, they had control of both chambers of Parliament, so passing a reform or law was impossible without the approval of these parties. Thus, unlike the Alliance of the government party with the DC, the Coalition was characterized by being premeditated, to serve as an opposition for any demand for a budget or bill promoted by the Executive or the parliamentarians of the AP or the DC.

On the other hand, this political struggle was aggravated by economic problems created by both Belaúnde and his political rivals. In this context, the country embarked on large public works projects without having the necessary resources to finance them. Both sides competed with each other to spend more and authorize more spending. On more than one occasion, Parliament promoted and approved projects, but at the same time blocked any attempt at tax reform to finance them. As the national economic situation worsened, Belaúnde's position became more precarious.[8]​.

The Coalition opposition

This is how, from parliament, the APRA-UNO Coalition mounted an unbridled opposition that was limited more than anything to questioning and censuring ministers, forcing the change of cabinet on several occasions and censuring 94 ministers in the five years that the government lasted.[9]​.

Likewise, the Coalition stopped the government's reform drive, so economic and social instability would be added to the political instability. Thus, when due to the recent social crises in the interior of the country, the need for agrarian reform became indispensable, an agrarian reform law was presented, promoted by the AP and DC benches, which was highly discussed in Congress and was harshly criticized by the APRA-UNO Coalition.[9]​ In this way, the pro-Odriist Coalition opposed the reforms of the Government party, especially the agrarian reform and the presence of foreign capital in the oil industry.

However, there was not always a confrontation on each matter that was discussed in Congress. This gave a 60-day authorization so that the Executive could fix the situation with the International Petroleum Company (IPC), which had APRA support. Even so, it cannot be said that there was an alliance with the government on this issue, due to the political costs that it entailed for APRA in view of the next election. There were many positions within this party regarding this issue, which explains why there was an "ambivalence in the attitude of Apra, which was reflected in a lack of clarity in the party's public affairs regarding the IPC issue."[10]​.

Municipal elections of 1963 and 1966

The first municipal elections had been held in 1922. However, these were annulled by Leguía, and his successors never called municipal elections again. The municipal authorities continued to be elected by boards of notables, despite the fact that the 1933 Constitution established the election by popular vote.

This situation would change in 1963 with the approval of Law No. 14669, of November 1963, with which Belaúnde fulfilled one of his electoral promises: to restore municipal elections, so that citizens could elect mayors and councilors with their vote at the district and provincial council level.

In this way, the government reestablished the municipal elections, which were scheduled for December 16, 1963, in which the confrontation for power that already existed between the Executive and the Legislative was reflected. Broadly speaking, the Coalition (APRA-UNO) won in the north, while the Alliance (Popular Action plus Christian Democracy) won in the south. In Lima, the first municipality of the Republic, Luis Bedoya Reyes, candidate of the Alliance, defeated María Delgado Romero, the wife of the former president and candidate of the Coalition.[11]​ It was one of the first televised campaigns in history.[12]​ According to unofficial calculations, the Alliance obtained in global figures 662,851 votes (46.6%), and the Coalition 630,586 votes (44.4%). The extreme left and the independent candidates shared the remaining 9%.[13]​.

In the municipal elections of November 13, 1966, the panorama underwent some alteration. The APRA-UNO Coalition retained its northern strongholds, while the Alliance lost some of its southern strongholds, such as Arequipa, Cuzco and Puno, but retained Lima, where Luis Bedoya Reyes was re-elected, this time in a tight contest with Jorge Grieve Madge. The unofficial calculations, throughout the Republic, were the following: for the Alliance, 824,058 votes, 45.9%; for the Coalition 807,703 votes, 45.5%. The remaining 9% was distributed between the extreme left and independents.[13]​.

Political crisis

By 1967, the erosion of the Alliance was becoming increasingly evident. Certain sectors of AP, among which was Belaúnde himself, began to seek agreements with the oligarchy and APRA, with the main subject of discussion being financial and tax issues, which generated insurmountable gaps, but sometimes the opponents were forced to become more flexible, so as not to be frowned upon by public opinion and damage their image for the following elections.

This approach of rapprochement was rejected by other sectors of the governing party, led by vice president Edgardo Seoane. For its part, already in 1966, the DC suffered a breakup that removed the most conservative sector led by Mayor Bedoya Reyes, who formed the Popular Christian Party (PPC), from the group. This conservative sector was able to survive hand in hand with its conservative leaders; However, the renovators continued with DC, which did not take long to become extinct despite being led by an enlightened and astute politician like Héctor Cornejo.

These internal conflicts led both parties, AP and DC, to fall into contradictions that led to the breakup of the alliance.

Just as there were ideological discrepancies between the two blocs formed in Congress, within the AP-DC alliance there was also a rupture as soon as the first agrarian reform law was approved in 1964, Law No. 15037. This established that some lands were going to be expropriated, but that it was going to be compensated with bonds; In addition to the technical and financial assistance of the State, it was planned to create cooperatives.[9]​ Due to the content of this law, the leader of the DC, Héctor Cornejo, who was not very flexible in his ideas, decided to distance himself from the alliance with the AP and began to support the opposing side in certain struggles.[14]​.

The adverse results for the Alliance in the complementary elections for a deputation for Lima and another for La Libertad (held on November 12, 1967, caused the DC to separate from the alliance with AP that same day.[15]​ In those elections, the Coalition candidates won: Enrique Chirinos Soto (Lima) and Enrique Mendoza (La Libertad).[16]​.

The DC's support for the government definitively faded when the government's position began to be discussed regarding the problem of La Brea and Pariñas and the contract with the International Petroleum Company, which was harshly criticized by public opinion because it supposedly went against the interests of the Peruvian State and benefited said transnational company. The Alliance was completely dissolved.[9]​.

The first rift between the APRA and Odriísta opposition groups occurred when AP, after its break with DC, sought to build bridges with APRA in order to approve some reforms. However, the distance between APRA and UNO became irreversible when the former began to support the government in its negotiation with the International Petroleum Company, in 1967. In addition, some former Apra militants had joined the MIR "Revolutionary Left Movement (Peru)") to fight in a guerrilla style in the style of the Cuban revolution. This circumstance caused the UNO to distance itself as well, a rupture that became evident when the APRA and the AP came together to agree on the appointment of a ministerial cabinet: the Hercelles cabinet or also, as it was popularly known, the "conversed cabinet", which had the doctor Oswaldo Hercelles as premier and Manuel Ulloa as Minister of Finance.[17] Faced with this situation, Odría finally decided to put an end to the Coalition.

Belaúnde's cabinets and censorship

Faced with an Aprista-Odriist Coalition that was harming him in Congress, Belaúnde appointed a ministerial cabinet chaired by the doctor Óscar Trelles Montes and composed of ministers of Popular Action, Christian Democracy and military ministers. Likewise, for the Ministry of Finance he appointed Javier Salazar Villanueva, an independent minister. Although at first he was able to overcome the obstacles in Congress, this situation could not be sustained for long.[20]​.

The government's victory in the 1963 municipal elections was interpreted by many as a vote of confidence by the population in the government.[20] For this reason, the Coalition decided to direct its attack towards the regime, producing the first of several censures, that of the Trelles cabinet, on December 30, 1963. The Coalition justified itself by saying that the government had not taken the necessary measures to avoid the riots that had occurred a few months earlier in Cusco, where the The seizure of land on a farm resulted in the death of seven peasants and twenty-two injuries.[21] Trelles was, incidentally, the Minister of Government and Police, and therefore he was directly responsible for the matter. So Belaunde had to recompose his cabinet.[22]​.

It was a sign of what was to come; The first cabinet had only lasted five months. Throughout the government there were a total of seven cabinets due to the censorship of the Coalition.[22]​.

The next recomposed cabinet was chaired by Dr. Fernando Schwalb, who was at the same time the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Juan Languasco de Habich went on to head the Government Ministry and his policy was opposite to that of Trelles: if he had tolerated the land invasions to avoid massacres, Languasco forcibly evicted the invaders. The government was thus moving away from its reformist attempt and APRA seemed happy with the new situation.[23]​.

The Schwalb cabinet remained until September 1965. During that period, the agrarian reform law was passed, the implementation of which was slow due to pro-Odriism from Congress. On the other hand, the solution to the problem of La Brea and Pariñas stalled, and communist guerrillas emerged in the Andes.[24]​.

In September 1965, another cabinet headed by Dr. Daniel Becerra de la Flor assumed office. This incorporated several parliamentarians from Popular Action and the Christian Democratic Party as ministers, which is why it became known as the "parliamentary cabinet." According to García Belaúnde, this was due to the support of public opinion that was evident in the municipal elections of 1966, despite the fact that the government did not have a majority in Congress.[20]​.

When the currency was devalued in September 1967, the Becerra de la Flor cabinet had to resign. He was replaced by the cabinet chaired by engineer Edgardo Seoane, who was also the vice president of the Republic.

Political administration

Vast reforms were made in the police branch. The organic framework of the Investigative Police of Peru was approved, and, among other organizations, the Instruction Center of the Republican Guard was created, for the training of officers of this body. The new Training Center of the Civil Guard was inaugurated and the postal services and the General Directorate of Transit were reorganized.[30]​.

The following provinces were created: San Miguel, in Cajamarca; Antonio Raimondi in Ancash; Satipo in Junín and San Ignacio, in Cajamarca, the latter adjacent to the border of Ecuador.[31]​.

The promises of change and the development model

For the 1963 elections, Belaúnde managed to expand his support base by including agrarian reform and protection of industry in his program. In addition to the approval of the Army, Belaúnde thus began to represent urban sectors, small farmers and industrialists. This economic government proposal was framed, roughly, within the currents of development studies of that time (which are very relevant today). It was preceded by a period where growth based on exports was prioritized, which had shown its inability to grow quickly and offer responses to fluctuations in the world economy and the greater internal inequalities that it generated. The new model proposed that industrialization should be the axis to organize the productive structure that, it was assumed, would lead to more sustained growth and a better distribution of income. This model supports the importance of the national business community for capitalist development in underdeveloped countries, supporting it with protectionist measures, and articulating the rural market with reforms to the social structure such as agrarian reform. The persistence of the problems of inequality and dependence on foreign capital put issues of ownership and economic control on the debate board, issues that would be addressed by the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces (1968-1980). Belaunde thus represented a moment in which national industry was promoted as the axis of the economy and where the limitations, both theoretical and practical, of this model were seen (ISI: Import Substitution Industrialization). The Belaúnde government failed to carry out the property reforms necessary to establish a solid foundation for sustained industrialization, and saw development decline in pace while problems of inequality increased.[32] Specifically, agrarian reform, tax reform, and the problem with the International Petroleum Company (IPC) were part of this government's political-economic discourse that ultimately remained unresolved to the detriment of the regime and the economy as a whole.

Agriculture and the land problem

The Peruvian agricultural sector is divided into two parts. On the one hand, coastal agriculture; industrially modern, concentrated on export products (sugar cane and cotton). On the other hand, mountain livestock production, self-subsistence and little technological development. Although with modest and localized growth, the agricultural sector entered, during the 1950s and 1960s, into a chronic crisis that forced farmers to migrate to the cities, and reinforced a vicious circle in which the population that did not grow its food grew, promoting food dependence. The causes of this crisis were: unequal land ownership, capitalist growth with support focused on coastal crops, scarcity of arable land, strong demographic pressure and unfavorable terms of internal exchange.[33]​.

Land ownership was a highly politicized problem and there was a tendency to superimpose it on other problems. However, its importance should not be underestimated. Until 1969, half of the agricultural area belonged to large private estates; There were gigantic estates, concentrated in a few owners, who nevertheless concentrated more than half of the cultivable area.[34]​ Furthermore, like this structural problem, it is worth mentioning that the government's support for certain sectors disadvantaged the agricultural sector of the mountains. Support for industrial growth had as one of its objectives the lowering of labor costs. To achieve this, the Peruvian State, by eliminating subsidies, made food cheaper. In this way, mountain agriculture was made to compete with considerably cheaper imports from imperialist states that had reverted their import character. "Creole liberalism thinks that it can promote the modernization of agriculture by opening it to competition, but the result is widespread stagnation and the beginning of a crisis that has not been able to be overcome from now on."[35]​.

The Military Government Junta of 1962-1963 introduced the first agrarian reform law. From then on, the perception grew that the implementation of an agrarian reform throughout the country was inevitable.[36] Belaúnde faced the problem by promulgating a law to expropriate the mountain estates, but the opposition in Congress prevented its implementation. However, during the Belaúnde period, the peasant movements of 1965, on the one hand, and the low productivity of agriculture in the mountains, reduced landowner and bourgeois resistance to agrarian reform. But the application of the law was delayed and the office in charge of it, the ONRA (National Office of Agrarian Reform) had budgetary problems. So much so that Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, appointed manager of the Central Reserve Bank in 1966, referred to the Belaundist agrarian reform in the following way: "Until 1968, land redistribution was certainly more of a threat than a reality." Large-scale agrarian reform would only occur from the next Velasco government.[37]​.

Foreign capital and the IPC problem

The relations between the Peruvian State and foreign capital did not have significant changes in economic terms until 1965. There was clear support for foreign investors, manifested in the Mining Code promulgated in 1950.

A separate issue was the problem of La Brea and Pariñas, which consisted of the illegal exploitation of the oil fields of that name (located in the north of the country) by the transnational company International Petroleum Company (IPC), a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey. The IPC, for decades, had refused to pay the full amount of taxes to which it was obliged under Peruvian laws. He even achieved advantageous exceptions, extracted from successive pro-American governments. Later we will give more details of this problem, whose solution undertaken by Belaúnde would generate a great scandal (The Talara Act and Page 11).

Fitzgerald maintains that the IPC problem, which Belaúnde had promised to solve in 90 days, gained greater importance in 1967, but more for political than economic reasons, since it was a kind of test of the strength of the State to exercise its sovereignty against the illegal exploitation of the La Brea and Pariñas deposits, already by then with assets of relatively modest value.[38]​ However, we can verify that the transnational was the second taxpayer in the country, producing the 75% of Peruvian oil;[5]​ but Fitzgerald's position, which highlights the claim of state sovereignty over a transnational, should not be left aside. The IPC problem is considered the triggering factor that precipitated the coup d'état in 1968.[5]​.

Tax reform

A vast tax reform was initiated in order to apply a rational and equitable burden to the taxpayer. A Tax Code was promulgated. To replace the Deposit and Consignment Fund, the Banco de la Nación "Banco de la Nación (Perú)") was created, under the direct control of the State, with the purpose of facilitating the collection of taxes from taxpayers. The salt and tobacco tobacconists were abolished. The functions of the Comptroller General of the Republic were streamlined.

Promotion of industrial and commercial development

The industrial development of the country was encouraged, with the installation of industrial parks in Arequipa, Cuzco, Tacna and Puno and the signing of contracts for the assembly of cars, with the firms Nissan Motors del Perú S.A. and Fiat Perú S.A.

By decree of August 19, 1967, all obstacles to commercial exchange with socialist countries were eliminated. Countries such as Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia sent trade missions to Peru.

Agricultural policy

• - A vast plan for agricultural development in the country was carried out, with the help of the Agrarian Research and Promotion Service (SIPA), the National Agrarian Reform Office (ONRA) and the Sectoral Agrarian Planning Office (OSPA). For the effective fulfillment of this plan, special programs were drawn up for the coast, the mountains and the jungle.

• - The Sectoral Office of Agrarian Planning and the National Planning System were commissioned to study the agrarian reality of the country.

• - The area of ​​land destined for the cultivation of take-out bread products was considerably expanded. In the experimental fields, new varieties of potatoes, rice, beans and wheat were obtained. All of this was achieved with technical and credit assistance from the UN, the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of North Carolina.

• - To regularize the distribution of food products, the Food Superintendence was created.

• - The tree planting policy was promoted, intensifying the planting of eucalyptus and conifers, both for industrial purposes and to contain soil erosion.

• - By Law No. 14502, the National Fertilizer Corporation (CONAFER) was created, an entity that replaced the old Guano Administration Company.

• - The planting of fruit trees increased in the mountain areas, destined for the planting of traditional products.

• - To encourage the cultivation of coffee and contribute to its effective marketing, the Peruvian Coffee Institute was created.

• - In the area of ​​livestock, the Agricultural Development Bank granted loans for the improvement of livestock farms in the departments of Tacna, Moquegua and Piura. Thus, it was possible to import Charolaise, Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle.

• - To protect the vicuña, the Pampa Galeras reserve was established.

Development efforts. Crisis

The landing of a plane in an inhospitable town in the Amazon, the arrival of the first ship of the Peruvian Steam Corporation to Spain, were part of his political discourse during his government, as if these gave some indication of the economic development of the country.[39]​.

Let's look at some general characteristics of economic growth. During the first three years of government, economic growth was experienced higher than the Latin American average – in terms of GDP per capita. These first years of government were an extension of the export development model. These went from 540 million dollars in 1963 to almost 800 million in 1967. The nature of the expansion, however, was not induced by the increase in production volumes, but by a circumstance beyond the control of the government: the rise in international prices for copper and fishmeal.[40]​.

Total investments remained relatively stable since, on the one hand, private investment was considerably reduced between 1962 and 1964 due to the president's reformist rhetoric, while public investment counteracted this effect through a massive public works program. In these actions, the interest in increasing the State's actions in the economy was shown.[5]​.

Production was clearly differentiated: while the agricultural sector remained clearly stagnant, the manufacturing sector oriented to the urban market continued to grow thanks to the government's protectionist measures.[41]​.

Indicators of Economic Growth: Peru and Latin America, 1961-1966.

(annual percentage changes, average 1961-1966).

Source: Adapted from Kuczynski (1980).[42]​.

Growth rates by sectors[5]​.

Source: Recovered by Parodi, Carlos (2000), based on Schydlowsky, Daniel and Juan Julio Wicht, Anatomy of an economic failure, Peru 1968-1978, Lima: Research Center of the Universidad del Pacífico, 1982, p.20.

The primary sectors that generated foreign currency, such as fishing, agriculture and mining, had a much slower development than the sectors that demanded foreign currency, such as the manufacturing sectors. In this way, the difference had to be met through external debt, which increased fivefold between 1963 and 1968. Furthermore, the government did not perceive that it was unsustainable to increase public spending without carrying out a tax reform; in fact, the tax modifications ended up benefiting the exporting sectors.[35] Thus, the Belaúnde regime ended with a serious fiscal deficit, growing inflation, and growing discontent over the inevitable measures. deflationary elections of 1967. US support was reduced by the government's inability to solve internal socioeconomic problems and the nationalist inclination regarding the CPI. Meanwhile, nationalist sectors criticized the government's inability to solve the CPI problem, and the greater control of multinationals over the manufacturing sector.

Inflation and popular discontent

As we already noted, the first three years of the Belaúnde government had encouraging economic figures, due to the increase in the price of exports, mainly fishmeal and minerals. But then public spending increased considerably, the budget deficit emerged and an inflationary process occurred. The peak moment of the crisis was the abrupt devaluation of the national currency, by 40%, on September 1, 1967. The dollar went from S/. 26.80 to S/. 38.70. Likewise, the external debt rose, which by the end of the regime reached 800 million soles. All of this caused the cost of living to increase by a proportion of 14.7%.

To avert this crisis, the government increased the salaries and wages of private sector employees and ordered an advance on the profits of the export sector equivalent to 10% of the value of exports, intended to finance salary readjustment for public employees who received an income of less than S/. 10,000.00.

Popular discontent was skillfully used by the political opposition. The displeasure increased even more when the commission of some smuggling cases from which members of the government had allegedly benefited were uncovered; but what would give the final blow to the regime would be the “Page Eleven” scandal (as we will see later).

Social Policies

From his trips made before assuming the presidency, Belaúnde was also able to collect data on a whole range of ancestral knowledge and forms of social interaction, practiced in the towns he visited. Rescuing the ancestral tradition of community work of the Andean peoples, he was able to organize government work with the beneficiary towns of state aid. Hence, starting in August 1963, a national office called Popular Cooperation was consolidated, whose work, carried out for the most part by residents guided by government officials, ended by coining the phrase: "The people did it," as a way of instilling in the social imagination how successful properly organized communal work could be.

This community development policy sought to move from a vertical system imposed from the central government to an approach from the communities themselves that will give greater importance to the interests of the beneficiaries of social policy. Thus, 10 million dollars were allocated for this initiative.[5]​.

However, the Popular Cooperation projects were not deployed to a significant magnitude due to the great opposition of the APRA-UNO coalition from the legislature, which described Belaúnde's social program as political. Congress would end up obstructing Popular Cooperation, transforming it into a department within the Ministry of Development and Public Works and not into an inter-ministerial program as was Belaúnde's initial objective.[5]​.

Belaúnde tried to combat the profound structural inequality through Law No. 15037 on Agrarian Reform of May 21, 1964. This reform mainly affected abandoned, poorly cultivated or feudalized latifundia in the departments of Pasco, Junín, Puno and the valleys of Lares and La Convencion, in the department of Cuzco, areas that had been convulsed by peasant mobilizations. It did not affect lands that had an efficient yield.

The matter presented regional particularities. While on the coast there was only the problem of redistribution of fertile land near the rivers, in the mountains only 5% of the land was in condition to be plowed. Furthermore, there was not only the need for redistribution, but also a problem of technical capacity so that the new owners could exploit it. The approach to the problem was solely distributive, so attempts at reform would end up being harmful.[5]​.

In the 1960s, the emergence of farmers' organizations took place, especially in the Convention Valley, where a small number of owners owned arable land. Thus, a conflict took place between the peasants, led by Hugo Blanco Galdós, and the large local property-owning families.

Finally, in the midst of this scenario of conflict, at the end of the fourth year of the Belaundista government, it had awarded 195,347 hectares of land, benefiting 30,000 farmers.

Social changes and their implications

In 1940, Peru was a predominantly agrarian country, with 6.2 million inhabitants, of which 2.2 were urban and 4 million were rural. During the second half of the century this preliminary condition changed drastically, with special emphasis on the period 1961-1972: the total population rose to 13.5 million in 1972. Although demographic growth occurred to a greater extent in the urban area, the growth in the rural population led to little availability of land to support the new inhabitants. In 1969, Velasco's agrarian reform demonstrated that there was only land to meet the demands of 25% of the peasantry, and this after decades of migration from the countryside to the city.[35]​.

The scarcity of land, added to the economic policies that tended to weaken the agrarian economy, caused the agricultural crisis.[44] The agricultural sector was so weakened that even the landowners themselves began to abandon their land. This unrest was fought in various ways, from the reformist route, with the intense debate on agrarian reform, to the revolutionary route with the guerrilla movements that were especially welcomed in the period 1956-1964.[45] On the other hand, the scarcity of land further precipitated urban growth, in addition to the condensation of the population on the coast, and especially in Lima. Between 1949 and 1993, the population of the coast in relation to the jungle went from 24% to 52%, that of the mountains from 63% to 35.5%. Furthermore, in 1993 one in three Peruvians lived in Lima.[46]​.

The migratory movement to cities was common during the industrial revolution in metropolitan countries. However, the poor development of the industry in Peru led to the inability to absorb labor. This is how the increase in the tertiary service sector is generated; what has been called “the informal sector”. Furthermore, the accelerated growth of cities, with the anarchic establishment of populations on the periphery simply overwhelmed the State's capabilities to provide services to the new settlers.[47] It is worth mentioning that during the internal armed conflict at the end of the century, the State's poor response to the challenge posed by the structural changes in society was a factor that made the conflict possible.[48]

Primary and secondary education had accelerated growth since the 1940s. The number of primary and secondary schools increased massively, and more importantly, the number of students who benefited increased from 60,661 in 1948 to 368,565 in 1966.[49] In addition, the number of universities also increased, which however only served to radicalize educated citizens who became part of "the unemployed." informal”. In 1972, the unemployed and underemployed represented 56.6% of the EAP.[46]​ This leads Oloarte[50]​ to maintain that the main problem for development is the existence of many trained workers and little work. The author offers us another point of view on the causes of this problem: lack of investment, political and economic instability, and poor cooperation between the state and the market.

Repression of guerrilla movements

Following the example of the Cuban revolution, some guerrilla groups emerged. In 1963 the National Liberation Army "Ejército de Liberación Nacional (Perú)") (ELN) made its appearance, a guerrilla group that was quickly neutralized by the armed forces, being the first guerrilla experience in Peru.

In 1964, the failure of the government's reform attempts and successive land invasions, some with violent clashes between peasants and landowners, led to an uncontrollable situation that triggered the following year the start of the guerrilla war by the Revolutionary Left Movement "Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (Peru)") (MIR). Its founder and leader was Luis de la Puente Uceda, a personal friend of Fidel Castro.

De la Puente Uceda was initially APRA, but he opposed the pact with Prado in 1956 and formed the Apra Rebelde, which in 1962 became the MIR. He traveled through Cuba, Europe, China, Vietnam and Korea. Upon returning to Peru, he was chosen by his party to lead the Mesa Pelada guerrilla movement (La Convencion, Cuzco). He had the support of the peasant leader Hugo Blanco Galdós, who mobilized thousands of peasants who demanded agrarian reform. While Gonzalo Fernández Gasco operated in the north of Peru; in the center, Guillermo Lobatón Milla; and in the south Rubén Tupayachi Solórzano.

The Armed Forces liquidated the MIR insurgency in less time than it had anticipated, although there were bloody clashes. De la Puente Uceda died fighting (October 23, 1965). Likewise, on January 5, 1966, Guillermo Lobatón died, but his body or his belongings were never found. One of the main reasons for the failure of these guerrillas was that the peasantry withdrew their support, considering that it was not necessary to resort to violence since the government had begun to carry out agrarian reforms in the most conflictive areas. Another reason was the guerrillas' choice to resist in forested areas, which, although difficult to access, were easier for the army to isolate and surround them, as happened.

Educational policy

• - The country enjoyed a significant investment in education, to which the highest proportion of the budget was allocated, something that had not happened in the country's history, until then.

• - The Law of free education was given at all levels, from Initial to Higher Education.

• - A vast educational plan was developed based on humanist, Christian, democratic and nationalist ideals.

• - New universities and normal schools were created, both state and private.

• - In coordination with the Ministry of Health, the Comprehensive School Feeding Plan was executed, which covered a daily supply of more than three million daily breakfasts to children in special and primary education, especially in marginal, rural, border and emergency areas.

• - Regional intermediate level schools were created in Chimbote, Tacna, Huancavelica, Chachapoyas, Moyobamba and Cuzco; the Juana Cervantes de Bolognesi school units for women in Arequipa, General Prado in Callao, Mercedes Indacochea in Lima (Barranco), the Mariscal Cáceres Military School in Huancayo and the Almirante Guisse naval high schools in Lima and Teniente Clavero in Iquitos.

• - School enrollment doubled, going from 1,843,799 to 3,117,500 students, with a growth rate of 9.19%, much higher than the demographic rate. In the five years of government, 14,000 classrooms were built, half of them by Popular Cooperation.

• - Under the auspices of UNICEF and UNESCO, an operations plan was completed for the training and improvement program for primary teaching personnel and new Regulations were issued for this sector.

• - Teaching services were significantly improved. At the initiative of the Executive, Law No. 15215 on the Teachers' Statute and Ranking was promulgated, which ensured special working conditions for teachers. By supreme decree No. 78 of December 10, 1965, the Magisterial Derrama was created, intended to financially help teachers and workers in the educational sector in cases of death, disability, retirement or voluntary withdrawal from service. The Derrama Magisterial project was the work of the acciopopulist deputy Luis Bocchio Rejas.

• - Regarding technical education, new schools were created and the development of industrial education for women was stimulated. Massive training courses were given for teachers and a new curriculum was put into operation for their training.

• - Intense work was done to educate adults and foresters.

• - With the purpose of decentralizing educational administration, regional directorates were created, which were provided with regulations. The functions of budget administration, personnel administration and technical pedagogical supervision were delegated to these directorates, with the Ministry of Education reserving the tasks of regulations and planning.

• - In the field of cultural promotion we will mention the initiation of the preparation of the General Geography of Peru, the Historical-Geographical Atlas and Peruvian landscapes; the creation of the Houses of Culture of Callao, Cajamarca, Cuzco, Huánuco and Ica, of the regional museums of Puno, Moquegua, Ica, Chincha and Cuzco and the site museums of Chanchán, Huarihuilca and Julio C. Tello.

Development and public works

It was thanks to Popular Cooperation and loans made by foreign and domestic credit institutions that Belaúnde was able to plan and carry out extensive infrastructure works, which materialized in the construction of roads, irrigation systems, electrification, housing, etc.

• - By law No. 15,260 of December 14, 1964, cooperatives were regulated and promoted in Peru.

• - The Departmental Development Corporations were created, in order to decentralize the administration.

• - A National Road Plan was developed for the construction of a system of communication routes that integrated production areas, especially agricultural, with the various urban markets. Many of these roads were built with the Popular Cooperation program and with international credits.

• - The construction of roads leading into the mountains and along the length of the mountains was promoted. 12 provincial capitals were interconnected: Corongo, Chuquibambilla, Antabamba, Pomabamba, Cajatambo, Piscobamba, Huacrachuco, Jumbilla, Rodríguez de Mendoza, Tambobamba and Llamellín.[51]​.

• - Construction of the famous Jungle Marginal Highway (now Fernando Belaúnde Terry Highway) began to unite that region, until then almost isolated, with the mountains and the coast, as well as to interconnect it with neighboring countries. The highway starts from the Chinchipe River (San Ignacio, Cajamarca), on the border with Ecuador in the north, until reaching the Heath River, in the department of Madre de Dios, in the south.

• - In Callao, the construction of the Jorge Chávez International Airport (initiated by the previous Prado government) was accelerated and airports were renovated and built in the most important cities of the nation.

• - The expansion work on the second stage of the Cañón del Pato Hydroelectric Power Plant, in Áncash, and the Sogesa plant (Sociedad Siderúrgica de Chimbote) that began the production of pig iron, steel and laminated products, were completed.

• - The first stage of the Tacna Plan began, through the construction of the Aricota Hydroelectric Power Plant, to generate 35,300 kW of electrical energy.

• - Construction of the first stage of the Mantaro Hydroelectric Plant began in Huancavelica.

• - The Machu Picchu Hydroelectric Power Plant was put into operation.

• - Other hydroelectric plants that came into operation were those of Abancay, Ayacucho and Huancaray, as well as the Iquitos Thermal Power Plant. The Matucana Central was started.

• - The first stage of the Tinajones Reservoir was built, in Lambayeque, to improve agricultural and livestock activity in the northern area.

• - The El Frayle dam was enabled, for the expansion of irrigation works in La Joya, with complementary works, through the construction of the Aguada Blanca reservoir.

Health and social welfare policy

• - A vast social assistance plan was carried out, through state and international organizations.[53]​.

• - The Ministry of Health was restructured and the National Health Plan was developed.[53]​.

• - The School of Public Health was created to train special personnel for the training of rural inmates and hospital administration.[53]​.

• - The Special Public Health Service was created, whose purpose was to solve the multiple health problems facing the country, mainly in rural areas.

• - With the support of the National Health and Social Welfare Fund (chaired by Octavio Mongrut) extensive hospital work was carried out. The health center hospitals of Tumbes, Trujillo, Huaraz, Cajamarca, Huánuco, Ayacucho, Abancay, Huancavelica, Cuzco, Tingo María, Puno, Rioja, Juanjuí, Aplao, Ica, Chepén, La Unión (Huánuco), Santa Rosa (Lima), Mollendo, Callao, Rímac, Moquegua, Tarapoto, Pucallpa, Chota and San Juan came into operation de Dios (Callao).[53]​ In total, 24 hospitals were built, an enormous achievement if one considers that in the entire history of the Health sector, 49 hospitals had been built, until before the start of the Belaundista government.[54]​.

• - The Children's Hospital, the Maternity Hospital and the Santa Rosa Maternal and Child Hospital in Lima were remodeled, expanded and equipped.[55]​.

• - Honoring his profession as an architect, Belaúnde carried out a vast policy of construction and promotion of collective housing. For this, there was cooperation from the National Health and Social Welfare Fund, the National Housing Board, the Workers' Retirement Fund, the National Employee Social Security Pension Fund, Sogesa and the National Economic Development Fund, plus loans granted by foreign credit institutions. In numerous cities in the country, large housing complexes were built for the popular sectors, education professionals and police, and a large part of the main cities on the Peruvian coast and mountains were urbanized. In Lima, Residencial San Felipe stands out, with its corresponding shopping center, as well as the neighborhood units of Matute, Mirones and Rímac.[56]​.

• - An effective sanitation plan was carried out and a program was drawn up to provide water and sewage services to populations of less than 2,000 inhabitants.

• - The La Punta drainage collector in Callao and the elevated water reservoir service in the same city were delivered to the service.[57]​.

• - Construction of the Lima Civic Center began on the land of the former Central Penitentiary or Panopticon.[57]​.

• - The Park of Legends was inaugurated, in the district of San Miguel "Distrito de San Miguel (Lima)"), in December 1963, which began with an area of ​​24 hectares. Subsequently, about 100 hectares were acquired from the Catholic University in order to develop the Central Park of Lima, which houses the Zoo, the National Museum of Archeology, as well as other museums and recreation facilities.

Justice

• - As a first step in improving the administration of justice, an inventory of the country's judicial reality began to be compiled, in order to establish a new judicial territorial demarcation.

• - To house, protect and study the problem of juvenile delinquency, foster homes for minors and the juvenile police service were created.

• - To rehabilitate the criminal, the probation service and the industrial technical institute of Peru were created, as an entity destined to organize work centers in penal establishments. For the qualification of prison personnel, the Prison Training Center was reimplemented.

• - Emphasis was placed on the construction of penitentiary premises and the Ica Penitentiary Center was inaugurated.

• - Work was intensified for the completion of the Lurigancho Center for the accused.

• - The Callao Courthouse was inaugurated.[58]​.

The government energized its relations with various countries in order to achieve greater political, economic and cultural ties. Following this line, it held bilateral trade conferences with the governments of Finland, Japan, and Portugal and signed technical assistance agreements with Israel and international organizations such as the OAS, the IDB and the ECLAC, and agreements were reached with Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador for the construction of the Bolivarian marginal highway of La Selva.

Peru participated in various international meetings, such as the meeting of foreign ministers in Punta del Este (Uruguay) in April 1967, which prepared the declaration of the American Heads of State who met there between April 12 and 14 (including Belaúnde himself), which agreed on the decision to achieve a free, fair and democratic social order for the free peoples of the continent and their economic integration.

Peru received the official visit of presidents Eduardo Frei Montalva of Chile, Charles de Gaulle of France, Giuseppe Saragat of Italy and René Barrientos of Bolivia, and that of Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. Likewise that of Prince Akihito of Japan and Prince Albert of Liège of Belgium.

• - Thanks to a Peruvian-American bilateral agreement, the United States government supplied equipment for national development, basically related to the road plan.[57]​.

• - An industrial training center was established in each military region for technical preparation by civilian and military professors.

• - The Independencia training ship was acquired, for the training of future naval officers.[57]​.

• - The “Miguel Grau” Nautical School of Callao was reopened.[57]​.

• - The equipment at the Callao shipyards were modernized.[57]​.

• - The Institute of the Sea was created, an entity dedicated to the study of ichthyological wealth, in collaboration with the universities of Duque and Yale in the United States and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.[58]​.

• - The General Directorate of the Merchant Navy was created.

• - The facilities of the Callao Naval Base and the La Punta Naval School were improved.

• - The Industrial Services of the Navy (SIMA) was supported, which made it possible to launch large tonnage units built in shipyards in Peru.

• - Mirage IIIE aircraft were acquired from France for the Peruvian Air Force. The Navy and the Army were also able to renew their war material.

The Talara Act and the scandal on page 11

Upon assuming the presidency, Belaúnde offered to resolve the problem of La Brea and Pariñas in 90 days. This was a shameful lawsuit for the nation that had already been unresolved for several decades; It consisted of the fact that the American transnational company International Petroleum Company (IPC) had been illegally exploiting the La Brea and Pariñas oil fields, located in the north of Peru, without contributing to the treasury the amount owed, which had been accumulating over the years.[59][60]​.

During the first year of government, Belaúnde sent a bill to Congress to declare null and void the so-called Paris Agreement, Convention and Award (signed in 1922, during Leguía's time and which had favored the IPC) and requested that the La Brea and Pariñas fields be placed under the control of the Empresa Petrolera Fiscal (EPF), a Peruvian state company, for greater control and benefit of the State within the Treasury. In response, Congress issued Law No. 14,696, which declared the Award null and void, but did not rule on the transfer of La Brea y Pariñas to the EPF. The Executive Branch promulgated the law on November 4, 1963, thus being authorized to solve the old problem.

But in the following years, the matter remained stagnant, until in 1968, during the fifth year of the Belaúnde government (which would be the last), talks were resumed with the IPC. Apparently, Belaúnde's idea was not only to try to solve the economic-political problem with the company, but he was convinced that solving the problem could generate the foreign economic aid necessary to solve the financial problems, which had begun to show major flaws in the system and in the strengthening of the State. The aid, which was planned, would come from the United States Agency for International Development (AID), in the same amount that had been given to Chile or Colombia. «This economic support mechanism would reduce dependence on expensive supplier credits; On the contrary, the soft loans that come from the Social Program Fund of the IDB and AID would give Peru abundant resources."[61]​.

Thus, in July 1968, negotiations began with the IPC in the Government Palace. Congress had given the corresponding permission for the president and a commission to solve the oil conflicts. The negotiations took an important turn between August 12 and 13, 1968. Finally, the Talara Act was signed&action=edit&redlink=1 "Talara Act (1968) (not yet drafted)"), signed by President Belaúnde, by the president of the Senate Carlos Manuel Cox, by the president of the Chamber of Deputies Andrés Townsend and by senior officials of the IPC.

By the Talara Act, all the La Brea and Pariñas oil fields were transferred to the government so that the EPF could take charge of them, while the IPC kept the already obsolete Talara refinery. A ten-year contract was also made for the sale of natural gas by the EPF to the IPC and a similar six-year contract for the sale of crude oil from La Brea and Pariñas to the IPC refinery in Talara.[62] The IPC would be in charge of the national distribution of the fuel and the so-called Lima Concessions. This new distribution of fuel gave the IPC a monopoly on the market.

This news was highly publicized in the media. The entire country exploded with joy because it was described as the end of the old problem of La Brea and Pariñas. However, public opinion changed when a sector of the press (Oiga magazine) revealed the conditions that the IPC had imposed for the signing of the Act. The peak moment of the scandal came on September 10, when the resigning president of the EPF, engineer Carlos Loret de Mola, denounced on television that a page was missing from the contract that established the conditions for the purchase and sale of crude oil between the EPF and the IPC. That page was the last of three sets of four sides, twelve in total, of a paper called "sello sixth", which was a numbered paper officially issued by the Peruvian State and was used to carry out commercial transactions and contracts in general. Loret de Mola implied that the page had been deliberately lost and that it contained an important part of the general agreement with the IPC, particularly the summary that explained the minimum price of US$ 1.08 for each barrel of crude oil, which the IPC would charge the EPF.[63]​.

Thus the “Página Eleven” scandal broke out, which would be the trigger for the end of the already weakened Belaúnde government.[64] The wave of criticism not only came from Congress and its opposition majority, but was a very strong communication campaign that discredited the agreement, the government and the people who had participated in it. The government was accused of "surrender", as it was supposedly favoring the IPC in the sale of crude oil, in compensation for the delivery of La Brea and Pariñas.

The two strong media outlets that argued against the Act were El Comercio "El Comercio (Perú)") and La Prensa "La Prensa (Perú)"). In addition to this, different positions had been expressed regarding the signed Minute, due to the low cost at which barrels of oil were valued, the 40-year concession of the Talara refinery to the IPC and the speed with which the agreement was reached.

Various interpretations have been made about Page Eleven in Peru. To tell the truth, its existence was never proven, neither by Carlos Loret de Mola, nor by the military government of the 1970s. According to Kuczynski, if that page existed it would be numbered as 28160934, since the numbers of the two previous pages in the four-page folio of sealed paper were 28160932 and 28160933.[65] Some of those who maintained its existence They attributed great importance to it because, apparently, it contained valuable information, accusing the government of having intentionally eliminated it to hide the economic benefits it provided to the IPC in the sale of crude oil, as Loret de Mola claimed. Others argued that it was just a blank page and there were even some who denied its existence. It is said that it appeared shortly before the 1980 elections and contained only the date on which the famous document was signed, thus destroying all responsibility of the Belaúnde government and its officials for some supposed clauses in favor of the IPC.

The great scandal that was created in the media caused a very big crisis within the Government, which was used politically by the opposition. It had very strong political consequences for Belaúnde, such as the breakdown of support from Christian Democracy, the breakup of Acción Popular and the massive rejection of civil society. These events caused weeks of uncertainty.

On October 1, the president of the Council of Ministers Oswaldo Hercelles resigned, and the next day, a new cabinet chaired by Miguel Mujica Gallo was sworn in. A few hours later the coup d'état occurred. The Page 11 scandal had only been the beginning of a very predictable end.

Velasco's 1968 coup

In 1963 the military had supported Belaúnde in the elections especially for his reformist program on agrarian issues, which in the eyes of the armed forces was necessary to guarantee the internal security of the country. However, as Belaúnde's reformist projects were stopped by the APRA-UNO coalition in Congress, the Armed Forces began to grow impatient. Furthermore, APRA seemed to be the party most likely to win in the upcoming 1969 elections. Faced with the enormous possibility of Haya de la Torre coming to power in 1969, rumors of a military coup to prevent it began to become increasingly stronger. The old quarrels between APRA and the military intensified once again, however, this time it would not be because of Haya de la Torre's reformist project. On the contrary, the military did not look favorably on APRA's alliance with the oligarchy, and the obstruction of Belaúnde's reforms. Now APRA and the army found themselves in inverse ideological positions with respect to those they had in the past. However, these positions were, as in the past, contrary.[66]​.

On October 3, 1968, almost ten months after the end of his government, Belaúnde was overthrown by a group of soldiers with a socialist tendency, led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, at that time president of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Peru.

At dawn on October 3, 1968, as three o'clock approached, army tanks arrived at the Plaza de Armas in Lima; From the Government Palace, Fernando Belaúnde called the ministers Roberto Dianderas, of war; Jorge Luna Ferreccio, from the Navy, and José Gagliardi Schiaffino, from Aeronautics, and asked them to take the most drastic measures. The army broke the entrance doors and entered the Government Palace; Then a group of soldiers under the command of Commander Enrique Gallegos arrived at the rooms and led Belaúnde to a truck that took him to the Armored Division barracks. Other tanks took over the premises of the Congress, the prefecture, the premises of Popular Action and APRA, National Radio, the Ministry of the Interior and the Television stations.

At 5 a.m. m. the ministers of state manage to meet in the Chancellery Palace; The Minister of War Dianderas and the Navy were missing. It was agreed that the 2nd vice president Mario Polar would assume the presidency and it was proposed to dismiss all the coup officers. At 6 a.m. m. A large number of Investigative Police officers surrounded the Chancellery Palace and then violently broke into it. The ministers left the premises singing the National Anthem. Meanwhile, at the airport, an APSA plane that the rebel military had prepared to flee in case the coup failed, or deport President Belaúnde in it, was ready to depart if they triumphed.

At 8 a.m. m. President Belaúnde arrived guarded by 3 officers and 20 investigators, who forced him to board the plane. The deposed president was taken to the Ezeiza International Airport, Argentina.

• - On May 24, 1964, the National Stadium tragedy occurred where about 300 people died.

• - On October 17, 1966, an earthquake occurred that devastated Lima, Callao and the northern coastal strip up to Supe, and whose epicenter was in front of Huacho. It also produced a tsunami. Its toll was 220 dead and 1,800 injured.

• - On December 14, 1966, the distinguished intellectual and diplomat Víctor Andrés Belaúnde (Fernando's uncle) died in New York, who went on to preside over the General Assembly of the United Nations.

• - On August 15, 1967, former president Manuel Prado Ugarteche, who governed Peru in two periods: 1939-1945 and 1956-1962, died in Paris.

Ministers

• - Matsé genocide.

• - National Liberation Army "National Liberation Army (Peru)").

• - Revolutionary left movement "Revolutionary Left Movement (Peru)").

• - 1968 coup d'état.

• - NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS AND COMPUTING (INEI). (1994). Statistical Compendium 1993-1994, Volume 1. Lima.

AP-DC Alliance

Fernando Belaúnde Terry, leader of Acción Popular (AP) won the elections allied with the Christian Democracy (DC). In Congress, representatives of both parties united to counteract the Coalition of Apristas and Odriists, and adopted the name of the ALLIANCE. The DC was actually a small party, recently founded, which had obtained a meager percentage of votes in 1962, but which had the ability to ally itself with AP in 1963 and thus managed to obtain senatorships and deputations, which it would not have been able to obtain by running individually in the elections. They also received some ministerial positions.[6]​.

Popular Action, due to its recent formation, was considered by some to be a federation of independents, in contrast to the APRA discipline curdled in several decades of clandestinity. Christian Democracy was also recently founded and was characterized by a more radical reformist doctrine postulated by its leader Héctor Cornejo Chávez.[7]​.

APRA-UNO Coalition

Belaúnde's opponents, Odría and Haya de la Torre, leaving aside their ideological differences and mutual grievances, formed a coalition to hinder the government's work from parliament. It is known as the APRA-UNO Coalition. This coalition was no longer so surprising considering that both groups had previously joined forces in the Monterrico Pact to allow coexistence during the Prado government. They had also joined forces to elect Odría as President in 1962.

The APRA-UNO coalition took place in a favorable scenario for these two parties. On the one hand, both groups in Congress formed an incontrovertible majority and, on the other, they had control of both chambers of Parliament, so passing a reform or law was impossible without the approval of these parties. Thus, unlike the Alliance of the government party with the DC, the Coalition was characterized by being premeditated, to serve as an opposition for any demand for a budget or bill promoted by the Executive or the parliamentarians of the AP or the DC.

On the other hand, this political struggle was aggravated by economic problems created by both Belaúnde and his political rivals. In this context, the country embarked on large public works projects without having the necessary resources to finance them. Both sides competed with each other to spend more and authorize more spending. On more than one occasion, Parliament promoted and approved projects, but at the same time blocked any attempt at tax reform to finance them. As the national economic situation worsened, Belaúnde's position became more precarious.[8]​.

The Coalition opposition

This is how, from parliament, the APRA-UNO Coalition mounted an unbridled opposition that was limited more than anything to questioning and censuring ministers, forcing the change of cabinet on several occasions and censuring 94 ministers in the five years that the government lasted.[9]​.

Likewise, the Coalition stopped the government's reform drive, so economic and social instability would be added to the political instability. Thus, when due to the recent social crises in the interior of the country, the need for agrarian reform became indispensable, an agrarian reform law was presented, promoted by the AP and DC benches, which was highly discussed in Congress and was harshly criticized by the APRA-UNO Coalition.[9]​ In this way, the pro-Odriist Coalition opposed the reforms of the Government party, especially the agrarian reform and the presence of foreign capital in the oil industry.

However, there was not always a confrontation on each matter that was discussed in Congress. This gave a 60-day authorization so that the Executive could fix the situation with the International Petroleum Company (IPC), which had APRA support. Even so, it cannot be said that there was an alliance with the government on this issue, due to the political costs that it entailed for APRA in view of the next election. There were many positions within this party regarding this issue, which explains why there was an "ambivalence in the attitude of Apra, which was reflected in a lack of clarity in the party's public affairs regarding the IPC issue."[10]​.

Municipal elections of 1963 and 1966

The first municipal elections had been held in 1922. However, these were annulled by Leguía, and his successors never called municipal elections again. The municipal authorities continued to be elected by boards of notables, despite the fact that the 1933 Constitution established the election by popular vote.

This situation would change in 1963 with the approval of Law No. 14669, of November 1963, with which Belaúnde fulfilled one of his electoral promises: to restore municipal elections, so that citizens could elect mayors and councilors with their vote at the district and provincial council level.

In this way, the government reestablished the municipal elections, which were scheduled for December 16, 1963, in which the confrontation for power that already existed between the Executive and the Legislative was reflected. Broadly speaking, the Coalition (APRA-UNO) won in the north, while the Alliance (Popular Action plus Christian Democracy) won in the south. In Lima, the first municipality of the Republic, Luis Bedoya Reyes, candidate of the Alliance, defeated María Delgado Romero, the wife of the former president and candidate of the Coalition.[11]​ It was one of the first televised campaigns in history.[12]​ According to unofficial calculations, the Alliance obtained in global figures 662,851 votes (46.6%), and the Coalition 630,586 votes (44.4%). The extreme left and the independent candidates shared the remaining 9%.[13]​.

In the municipal elections of November 13, 1966, the panorama underwent some alteration. The APRA-UNO Coalition retained its northern strongholds, while the Alliance lost some of its southern strongholds, such as Arequipa, Cuzco and Puno, but retained Lima, where Luis Bedoya Reyes was re-elected, this time in a tight contest with Jorge Grieve Madge. The unofficial calculations, throughout the Republic, were the following: for the Alliance, 824,058 votes, 45.9%; for the Coalition 807,703 votes, 45.5%. The remaining 9% was distributed between the extreme left and independents.[13]​.

Political crisis

By 1967, the erosion of the Alliance was becoming increasingly evident. Certain sectors of AP, among which was Belaúnde himself, began to seek agreements with the oligarchy and APRA, with the main subject of discussion being financial and tax issues, which generated insurmountable gaps, but sometimes the opponents were forced to become more flexible, so as not to be frowned upon by public opinion and damage their image for the following elections.

This approach of rapprochement was rejected by other sectors of the governing party, led by vice president Edgardo Seoane. For its part, already in 1966, the DC suffered a breakup that removed the most conservative sector led by Mayor Bedoya Reyes, who formed the Popular Christian Party (PPC), from the group. This conservative sector was able to survive hand in hand with its conservative leaders; However, the renovators continued with DC, which did not take long to become extinct despite being led by an enlightened and astute politician like Héctor Cornejo.

These internal conflicts led both parties, AP and DC, to fall into contradictions that led to the breakup of the alliance.

Just as there were ideological discrepancies between the two blocs formed in Congress, within the AP-DC alliance there was also a rupture as soon as the first agrarian reform law was approved in 1964, Law No. 15037. This established that some lands were going to be expropriated, but that it was going to be compensated with bonds; In addition to the technical and financial assistance of the State, it was planned to create cooperatives.[9]​ Due to the content of this law, the leader of the DC, Héctor Cornejo, who was not very flexible in his ideas, decided to distance himself from the alliance with the AP and began to support the opposing side in certain struggles.[14]​.

The adverse results for the Alliance in the complementary elections for a deputation for Lima and another for La Libertad (held on November 12, 1967, caused the DC to separate from the alliance with AP that same day.[15]​ In those elections, the Coalition candidates won: Enrique Chirinos Soto (Lima) and Enrique Mendoza (La Libertad).[16]​.

The DC's support for the government definitively faded when the government's position began to be discussed regarding the problem of La Brea and Pariñas and the contract with the International Petroleum Company, which was harshly criticized by public opinion because it supposedly went against the interests of the Peruvian State and benefited said transnational company. The Alliance was completely dissolved.[9]​.

The first rift between the APRA and Odriísta opposition groups occurred when AP, after its break with DC, sought to build bridges with APRA in order to approve some reforms. However, the distance between APRA and UNO became irreversible when the former began to support the government in its negotiation with the International Petroleum Company, in 1967. In addition, some former Apra militants had joined the MIR "Revolutionary Left Movement (Peru)") to fight in a guerrilla style in the style of the Cuban revolution. This circumstance caused the UNO to distance itself as well, a rupture that became evident when the APRA and the AP came together to agree on the appointment of a ministerial cabinet: the Hercelles cabinet or also, as it was popularly known, the "conversed cabinet", which had the doctor Oswaldo Hercelles as premier and Manuel Ulloa as Minister of Finance.[17] Faced with this situation, Odría finally decided to put an end to the Coalition.

Belaúnde's cabinets and censorship

Faced with an Aprista-Odriist Coalition that was harming him in Congress, Belaúnde appointed a ministerial cabinet chaired by the doctor Óscar Trelles Montes and composed of ministers of Popular Action, Christian Democracy and military ministers. Likewise, for the Ministry of Finance he appointed Javier Salazar Villanueva, an independent minister. Although at first he was able to overcome the obstacles in Congress, this situation could not be sustained for long.[20]​.

The government's victory in the 1963 municipal elections was interpreted by many as a vote of confidence by the population in the government.[20] For this reason, the Coalition decided to direct its attack towards the regime, producing the first of several censures, that of the Trelles cabinet, on December 30, 1963. The Coalition justified itself by saying that the government had not taken the necessary measures to avoid the riots that had occurred a few months earlier in Cusco, where the The seizure of land on a farm resulted in the death of seven peasants and twenty-two injuries.[21] Trelles was, incidentally, the Minister of Government and Police, and therefore he was directly responsible for the matter. So Belaunde had to recompose his cabinet.[22]​.

It was a sign of what was to come; The first cabinet had only lasted five months. Throughout the government there were a total of seven cabinets due to the censorship of the Coalition.[22]​.

The next recomposed cabinet was chaired by Dr. Fernando Schwalb, who was at the same time the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Juan Languasco de Habich went on to head the Government Ministry and his policy was opposite to that of Trelles: if he had tolerated the land invasions to avoid massacres, Languasco forcibly evicted the invaders. The government was thus moving away from its reformist attempt and APRA seemed happy with the new situation.[23]​.

The Schwalb cabinet remained until September 1965. During that period, the agrarian reform law was passed, the implementation of which was slow due to pro-Odriism from Congress. On the other hand, the solution to the problem of La Brea and Pariñas stalled, and communist guerrillas emerged in the Andes.[24]​.

In September 1965, another cabinet headed by Dr. Daniel Becerra de la Flor assumed office. This incorporated several parliamentarians from Popular Action and the Christian Democratic Party as ministers, which is why it became known as the "parliamentary cabinet." According to García Belaúnde, this was due to the support of public opinion that was evident in the municipal elections of 1966, despite the fact that the government did not have a majority in Congress.[20]​.

When the currency was devalued in September 1967, the Becerra de la Flor cabinet had to resign. He was replaced by the cabinet chaired by engineer Edgardo Seoane, who was also the vice president of the Republic.

Political administration

Vast reforms were made in the police branch. The organic framework of the Investigative Police of Peru was approved, and, among other organizations, the Instruction Center of the Republican Guard was created, for the training of officers of this body. The new Training Center of the Civil Guard was inaugurated and the postal services and the General Directorate of Transit were reorganized.[30]​.

The following provinces were created: San Miguel, in Cajamarca; Antonio Raimondi in Ancash; Satipo in Junín and San Ignacio, in Cajamarca, the latter adjacent to the border of Ecuador.[31]​.

The promises of change and the development model

For the 1963 elections, Belaúnde managed to expand his support base by including agrarian reform and protection of industry in his program. In addition to the approval of the Army, Belaúnde thus began to represent urban sectors, small farmers and industrialists. This economic government proposal was framed, roughly, within the currents of development studies of that time (which are very relevant today). It was preceded by a period where growth based on exports was prioritized, which had shown its inability to grow quickly and offer responses to fluctuations in the world economy and the greater internal inequalities that it generated. The new model proposed that industrialization should be the axis to organize the productive structure that, it was assumed, would lead to more sustained growth and a better distribution of income. This model supports the importance of the national business community for capitalist development in underdeveloped countries, supporting it with protectionist measures, and articulating the rural market with reforms to the social structure such as agrarian reform. The persistence of the problems of inequality and dependence on foreign capital put issues of ownership and economic control on the debate board, issues that would be addressed by the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces (1968-1980). Belaunde thus represented a moment in which national industry was promoted as the axis of the economy and where the limitations, both theoretical and practical, of this model were seen (ISI: Import Substitution Industrialization). The Belaúnde government failed to carry out the property reforms necessary to establish a solid foundation for sustained industrialization, and saw development decline in pace while problems of inequality increased.[32] Specifically, agrarian reform, tax reform, and the problem with the International Petroleum Company (IPC) were part of this government's political-economic discourse that ultimately remained unresolved to the detriment of the regime and the economy as a whole.

Agriculture and the land problem

The Peruvian agricultural sector is divided into two parts. On the one hand, coastal agriculture; industrially modern, concentrated on export products (sugar cane and cotton). On the other hand, mountain livestock production, self-subsistence and little technological development. Although with modest and localized growth, the agricultural sector entered, during the 1950s and 1960s, into a chronic crisis that forced farmers to migrate to the cities, and reinforced a vicious circle in which the population that did not grow its food grew, promoting food dependence. The causes of this crisis were: unequal land ownership, capitalist growth with support focused on coastal crops, scarcity of arable land, strong demographic pressure and unfavorable terms of internal exchange.[33]​.

Land ownership was a highly politicized problem and there was a tendency to superimpose it on other problems. However, its importance should not be underestimated. Until 1969, half of the agricultural area belonged to large private estates; There were gigantic estates, concentrated in a few owners, who nevertheless concentrated more than half of the cultivable area.[34]​ Furthermore, like this structural problem, it is worth mentioning that the government's support for certain sectors disadvantaged the agricultural sector of the mountains. Support for industrial growth had as one of its objectives the lowering of labor costs. To achieve this, the Peruvian State, by eliminating subsidies, made food cheaper. In this way, mountain agriculture was made to compete with considerably cheaper imports from imperialist states that had reverted their import character. "Creole liberalism thinks that it can promote the modernization of agriculture by opening it to competition, but the result is widespread stagnation and the beginning of a crisis that has not been able to be overcome from now on."[35]​.

The Military Government Junta of 1962-1963 introduced the first agrarian reform law. From then on, the perception grew that the implementation of an agrarian reform throughout the country was inevitable.[36] Belaúnde faced the problem by promulgating a law to expropriate the mountain estates, but the opposition in Congress prevented its implementation. However, during the Belaúnde period, the peasant movements of 1965, on the one hand, and the low productivity of agriculture in the mountains, reduced landowner and bourgeois resistance to agrarian reform. But the application of the law was delayed and the office in charge of it, the ONRA (National Office of Agrarian Reform) had budgetary problems. So much so that Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, appointed manager of the Central Reserve Bank in 1966, referred to the Belaundist agrarian reform in the following way: "Until 1968, land redistribution was certainly more of a threat than a reality." Large-scale agrarian reform would only occur from the next Velasco government.[37]​.

Foreign capital and the IPC problem

The relations between the Peruvian State and foreign capital did not have significant changes in economic terms until 1965. There was clear support for foreign investors, manifested in the Mining Code promulgated in 1950.

A separate issue was the problem of La Brea and Pariñas, which consisted of the illegal exploitation of the oil fields of that name (located in the north of the country) by the transnational company International Petroleum Company (IPC), a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey. The IPC, for decades, had refused to pay the full amount of taxes to which it was obliged under Peruvian laws. He even achieved advantageous exceptions, extracted from successive pro-American governments. Later we will give more details of this problem, whose solution undertaken by Belaúnde would generate a great scandal (The Talara Act and Page 11).

Fitzgerald maintains that the IPC problem, which Belaúnde had promised to solve in 90 days, gained greater importance in 1967, but more for political than economic reasons, since it was a kind of test of the strength of the State to exercise its sovereignty against the illegal exploitation of the La Brea and Pariñas deposits, already by then with assets of relatively modest value.[38]​ However, we can verify that the transnational was the second taxpayer in the country, producing the 75% of Peruvian oil;[5]​ but Fitzgerald's position, which highlights the claim of state sovereignty over a transnational, should not be left aside. The IPC problem is considered the triggering factor that precipitated the coup d'état in 1968.[5]​.

Tax reform

A vast tax reform was initiated in order to apply a rational and equitable burden to the taxpayer. A Tax Code was promulgated. To replace the Deposit and Consignment Fund, the Banco de la Nación "Banco de la Nación (Perú)") was created, under the direct control of the State, with the purpose of facilitating the collection of taxes from taxpayers. The salt and tobacco tobacconists were abolished. The functions of the Comptroller General of the Republic were streamlined.

Promotion of industrial and commercial development

The industrial development of the country was encouraged, with the installation of industrial parks in Arequipa, Cuzco, Tacna and Puno and the signing of contracts for the assembly of cars, with the firms Nissan Motors del Perú S.A. and Fiat Perú S.A.

By decree of August 19, 1967, all obstacles to commercial exchange with socialist countries were eliminated. Countries such as Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia sent trade missions to Peru.

Agricultural policy

• - A vast plan for agricultural development in the country was carried out, with the help of the Agrarian Research and Promotion Service (SIPA), the National Agrarian Reform Office (ONRA) and the Sectoral Agrarian Planning Office (OSPA). For the effective fulfillment of this plan, special programs were drawn up for the coast, the mountains and the jungle.

• - The Sectoral Office of Agrarian Planning and the National Planning System were commissioned to study the agrarian reality of the country.

• - The area of ​​land destined for the cultivation of take-out bread products was considerably expanded. In the experimental fields, new varieties of potatoes, rice, beans and wheat were obtained. All of this was achieved with technical and credit assistance from the UN, the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of North Carolina.

• - To regularize the distribution of food products, the Food Superintendence was created.

• - The tree planting policy was promoted, intensifying the planting of eucalyptus and conifers, both for industrial purposes and to contain soil erosion.

• - By Law No. 14502, the National Fertilizer Corporation (CONAFER) was created, an entity that replaced the old Guano Administration Company.

• - The planting of fruit trees increased in the mountain areas, destined for the planting of traditional products.

• - To encourage the cultivation of coffee and contribute to its effective marketing, the Peruvian Coffee Institute was created.

• - In the area of ​​livestock, the Agricultural Development Bank granted loans for the improvement of livestock farms in the departments of Tacna, Moquegua and Piura. Thus, it was possible to import Charolaise, Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle.

• - To protect the vicuña, the Pampa Galeras reserve was established.

Development efforts. Crisis

The landing of a plane in an inhospitable town in the Amazon, the arrival of the first ship of the Peruvian Steam Corporation to Spain, were part of his political discourse during his government, as if these gave some indication of the economic development of the country.[39]​.

Let's look at some general characteristics of economic growth. During the first three years of government, economic growth was experienced higher than the Latin American average – in terms of GDP per capita. These first years of government were an extension of the export development model. These went from 540 million dollars in 1963 to almost 800 million in 1967. The nature of the expansion, however, was not induced by the increase in production volumes, but by a circumstance beyond the control of the government: the rise in international prices for copper and fishmeal.[40]​.

Total investments remained relatively stable since, on the one hand, private investment was considerably reduced between 1962 and 1964 due to the president's reformist rhetoric, while public investment counteracted this effect through a massive public works program. In these actions, the interest in increasing the State's actions in the economy was shown.[5]​.

Production was clearly differentiated: while the agricultural sector remained clearly stagnant, the manufacturing sector oriented to the urban market continued to grow thanks to the government's protectionist measures.[41]​.

Indicators of Economic Growth: Peru and Latin America, 1961-1966.

(annual percentage changes, average 1961-1966).

Source: Adapted from Kuczynski (1980).[42]​.

Growth rates by sectors[5]​.

Source: Recovered by Parodi, Carlos (2000), based on Schydlowsky, Daniel and Juan Julio Wicht, Anatomy of an economic failure, Peru 1968-1978, Lima: Research Center of the Universidad del Pacífico, 1982, p.20.

The primary sectors that generated foreign currency, such as fishing, agriculture and mining, had a much slower development than the sectors that demanded foreign currency, such as the manufacturing sectors. In this way, the difference had to be met through external debt, which increased fivefold between 1963 and 1968. Furthermore, the government did not perceive that it was unsustainable to increase public spending without carrying out a tax reform; in fact, the tax modifications ended up benefiting the exporting sectors.[35] Thus, the Belaúnde regime ended with a serious fiscal deficit, growing inflation, and growing discontent over the inevitable measures. deflationary elections of 1967. US support was reduced by the government's inability to solve internal socioeconomic problems and the nationalist inclination regarding the CPI. Meanwhile, nationalist sectors criticized the government's inability to solve the CPI problem, and the greater control of multinationals over the manufacturing sector.

Inflation and popular discontent

As we already noted, the first three years of the Belaúnde government had encouraging economic figures, due to the increase in the price of exports, mainly fishmeal and minerals. But then public spending increased considerably, the budget deficit emerged and an inflationary process occurred. The peak moment of the crisis was the abrupt devaluation of the national currency, by 40%, on September 1, 1967. The dollar went from S/. 26.80 to S/. 38.70. Likewise, the external debt rose, which by the end of the regime reached 800 million soles. All of this caused the cost of living to increase by a proportion of 14.7%.

To avert this crisis, the government increased the salaries and wages of private sector employees and ordered an advance on the profits of the export sector equivalent to 10% of the value of exports, intended to finance salary readjustment for public employees who received an income of less than S/. 10,000.00.

Popular discontent was skillfully used by the political opposition. The displeasure increased even more when the commission of some smuggling cases from which members of the government had allegedly benefited were uncovered; but what would give the final blow to the regime would be the “Page Eleven” scandal (as we will see later).

Social Policies

From his trips made before assuming the presidency, Belaúnde was also able to collect data on a whole range of ancestral knowledge and forms of social interaction, practiced in the towns he visited. Rescuing the ancestral tradition of community work of the Andean peoples, he was able to organize government work with the beneficiary towns of state aid. Hence, starting in August 1963, a national office called Popular Cooperation was consolidated, whose work, carried out for the most part by residents guided by government officials, ended by coining the phrase: "The people did it," as a way of instilling in the social imagination how successful properly organized communal work could be.

This community development policy sought to move from a vertical system imposed from the central government to an approach from the communities themselves that will give greater importance to the interests of the beneficiaries of social policy. Thus, 10 million dollars were allocated for this initiative.[5]​.

However, the Popular Cooperation projects were not deployed to a significant magnitude due to the great opposition of the APRA-UNO coalition from the legislature, which described Belaúnde's social program as political. Congress would end up obstructing Popular Cooperation, transforming it into a department within the Ministry of Development and Public Works and not into an inter-ministerial program as was Belaúnde's initial objective.[5]​.

Belaúnde tried to combat the profound structural inequality through Law No. 15037 on Agrarian Reform of May 21, 1964. This reform mainly affected abandoned, poorly cultivated or feudalized latifundia in the departments of Pasco, Junín, Puno and the valleys of Lares and La Convencion, in the department of Cuzco, areas that had been convulsed by peasant mobilizations. It did not affect lands that had an efficient yield.

The matter presented regional particularities. While on the coast there was only the problem of redistribution of fertile land near the rivers, in the mountains only 5% of the land was in condition to be plowed. Furthermore, there was not only the need for redistribution, but also a problem of technical capacity so that the new owners could exploit it. The approach to the problem was solely distributive, so attempts at reform would end up being harmful.[5]​.

In the 1960s, the emergence of farmers' organizations took place, especially in the Convention Valley, where a small number of owners owned arable land. Thus, a conflict took place between the peasants, led by Hugo Blanco Galdós, and the large local property-owning families.

Finally, in the midst of this scenario of conflict, at the end of the fourth year of the Belaundista government, it had awarded 195,347 hectares of land, benefiting 30,000 farmers.

Social changes and their implications

In 1940, Peru was a predominantly agrarian country, with 6.2 million inhabitants, of which 2.2 were urban and 4 million were rural. During the second half of the century this preliminary condition changed drastically, with special emphasis on the period 1961-1972: the total population rose to 13.5 million in 1972. Although demographic growth occurred to a greater extent in the urban area, the growth in the rural population led to little availability of land to support the new inhabitants. In 1969, Velasco's agrarian reform demonstrated that there was only land to meet the demands of 25% of the peasantry, and this after decades of migration from the countryside to the city.[35]​.

The scarcity of land, added to the economic policies that tended to weaken the agrarian economy, caused the agricultural crisis.[44] The agricultural sector was so weakened that even the landowners themselves began to abandon their land. This unrest was fought in various ways, from the reformist route, with the intense debate on agrarian reform, to the revolutionary route with the guerrilla movements that were especially welcomed in the period 1956-1964.[45] On the other hand, the scarcity of land further precipitated urban growth, in addition to the condensation of the population on the coast, and especially in Lima. Between 1949 and 1993, the population of the coast in relation to the jungle went from 24% to 52%, that of the mountains from 63% to 35.5%. Furthermore, in 1993 one in three Peruvians lived in Lima.[46]​.

The migratory movement to cities was common during the industrial revolution in metropolitan countries. However, the poor development of the industry in Peru led to the inability to absorb labor. This is how the increase in the tertiary service sector is generated; what has been called “the informal sector”. Furthermore, the accelerated growth of cities, with the anarchic establishment of populations on the periphery simply overwhelmed the State's capabilities to provide services to the new settlers.[47] It is worth mentioning that during the internal armed conflict at the end of the century, the State's poor response to the challenge posed by the structural changes in society was a factor that made the conflict possible.[48]

Primary and secondary education had accelerated growth since the 1940s. The number of primary and secondary schools increased massively, and more importantly, the number of students who benefited increased from 60,661 in 1948 to 368,565 in 1966.[49] In addition, the number of universities also increased, which however only served to radicalize educated citizens who became part of "the unemployed." informal”. In 1972, the unemployed and underemployed represented 56.6% of the EAP.[46]​ This leads Oloarte[50]​ to maintain that the main problem for development is the existence of many trained workers and little work. The author offers us another point of view on the causes of this problem: lack of investment, political and economic instability, and poor cooperation between the state and the market.

Repression of guerrilla movements

Following the example of the Cuban revolution, some guerrilla groups emerged. In 1963 the National Liberation Army "Ejército de Liberación Nacional (Perú)") (ELN) made its appearance, a guerrilla group that was quickly neutralized by the armed forces, being the first guerrilla experience in Peru.

In 1964, the failure of the government's reform attempts and successive land invasions, some with violent clashes between peasants and landowners, led to an uncontrollable situation that triggered the following year the start of the guerrilla war by the Revolutionary Left Movement "Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (Peru)") (MIR). Its founder and leader was Luis de la Puente Uceda, a personal friend of Fidel Castro.

De la Puente Uceda was initially APRA, but he opposed the pact with Prado in 1956 and formed the Apra Rebelde, which in 1962 became the MIR. He traveled through Cuba, Europe, China, Vietnam and Korea. Upon returning to Peru, he was chosen by his party to lead the Mesa Pelada guerrilla movement (La Convencion, Cuzco). He had the support of the peasant leader Hugo Blanco Galdós, who mobilized thousands of peasants who demanded agrarian reform. While Gonzalo Fernández Gasco operated in the north of Peru; in the center, Guillermo Lobatón Milla; and in the south Rubén Tupayachi Solórzano.

The Armed Forces liquidated the MIR insurgency in less time than it had anticipated, although there were bloody clashes. De la Puente Uceda died fighting (October 23, 1965). Likewise, on January 5, 1966, Guillermo Lobatón died, but his body or his belongings were never found. One of the main reasons for the failure of these guerrillas was that the peasantry withdrew their support, considering that it was not necessary to resort to violence since the government had begun to carry out agrarian reforms in the most conflictive areas. Another reason was the guerrillas' choice to resist in forested areas, which, although difficult to access, were easier for the army to isolate and surround them, as happened.

Educational policy

• - The country enjoyed a significant investment in education, to which the highest proportion of the budget was allocated, something that had not happened in the country's history, until then.

• - The Law of free education was given at all levels, from Initial to Higher Education.

• - A vast educational plan was developed based on humanist, Christian, democratic and nationalist ideals.

• - New universities and normal schools were created, both state and private.

• - In coordination with the Ministry of Health, the Comprehensive School Feeding Plan was executed, which covered a daily supply of more than three million daily breakfasts to children in special and primary education, especially in marginal, rural, border and emergency areas.

• - Regional intermediate level schools were created in Chimbote, Tacna, Huancavelica, Chachapoyas, Moyobamba and Cuzco; the Juana Cervantes de Bolognesi school units for women in Arequipa, General Prado in Callao, Mercedes Indacochea in Lima (Barranco), the Mariscal Cáceres Military School in Huancayo and the Almirante Guisse naval high schools in Lima and Teniente Clavero in Iquitos.

• - School enrollment doubled, going from 1,843,799 to 3,117,500 students, with a growth rate of 9.19%, much higher than the demographic rate. In the five years of government, 14,000 classrooms were built, half of them by Popular Cooperation.

• - Under the auspices of UNICEF and UNESCO, an operations plan was completed for the training and improvement program for primary teaching personnel and new Regulations were issued for this sector.

• - Teaching services were significantly improved. At the initiative of the Executive, Law No. 15215 on the Teachers' Statute and Ranking was promulgated, which ensured special working conditions for teachers. By supreme decree No. 78 of December 10, 1965, the Magisterial Derrama was created, intended to financially help teachers and workers in the educational sector in cases of death, disability, retirement or voluntary withdrawal from service. The Derrama Magisterial project was the work of the acciopopulist deputy Luis Bocchio Rejas.

• - Regarding technical education, new schools were created and the development of industrial education for women was stimulated. Massive training courses were given for teachers and a new curriculum was put into operation for their training.

• - Intense work was done to educate adults and foresters.

• - With the purpose of decentralizing educational administration, regional directorates were created, which were provided with regulations. The functions of budget administration, personnel administration and technical pedagogical supervision were delegated to these directorates, with the Ministry of Education reserving the tasks of regulations and planning.

• - In the field of cultural promotion we will mention the initiation of the preparation of the General Geography of Peru, the Historical-Geographical Atlas and Peruvian landscapes; the creation of the Houses of Culture of Callao, Cajamarca, Cuzco, Huánuco and Ica, of the regional museums of Puno, Moquegua, Ica, Chincha and Cuzco and the site museums of Chanchán, Huarihuilca and Julio C. Tello.

Development and public works

It was thanks to Popular Cooperation and loans made by foreign and domestic credit institutions that Belaúnde was able to plan and carry out extensive infrastructure works, which materialized in the construction of roads, irrigation systems, electrification, housing, etc.

• - By law No. 15,260 of December 14, 1964, cooperatives were regulated and promoted in Peru.

• - The Departmental Development Corporations were created, in order to decentralize the administration.

• - A National Road Plan was developed for the construction of a system of communication routes that integrated production areas, especially agricultural, with the various urban markets. Many of these roads were built with the Popular Cooperation program and with international credits.

• - The construction of roads leading into the mountains and along the length of the mountains was promoted. 12 provincial capitals were interconnected: Corongo, Chuquibambilla, Antabamba, Pomabamba, Cajatambo, Piscobamba, Huacrachuco, Jumbilla, Rodríguez de Mendoza, Tambobamba and Llamellín.[51]​.

• - Construction of the famous Jungle Marginal Highway (now Fernando Belaúnde Terry Highway) began to unite that region, until then almost isolated, with the mountains and the coast, as well as to interconnect it with neighboring countries. The highway starts from the Chinchipe River (San Ignacio, Cajamarca), on the border with Ecuador in the north, until reaching the Heath River, in the department of Madre de Dios, in the south.

• - In Callao, the construction of the Jorge Chávez International Airport (initiated by the previous Prado government) was accelerated and airports were renovated and built in the most important cities of the nation.

• - The expansion work on the second stage of the Cañón del Pato Hydroelectric Power Plant, in Áncash, and the Sogesa plant (Sociedad Siderúrgica de Chimbote) that began the production of pig iron, steel and laminated products, were completed.

• - The first stage of the Tacna Plan began, through the construction of the Aricota Hydroelectric Power Plant, to generate 35,300 kW of electrical energy.

• - Construction of the first stage of the Mantaro Hydroelectric Plant began in Huancavelica.

• - The Machu Picchu Hydroelectric Power Plant was put into operation.

• - Other hydroelectric plants that came into operation were those of Abancay, Ayacucho and Huancaray, as well as the Iquitos Thermal Power Plant. The Matucana Central was started.

• - The first stage of the Tinajones Reservoir was built, in Lambayeque, to improve agricultural and livestock activity in the northern area.

• - The El Frayle dam was enabled, for the expansion of irrigation works in La Joya, with complementary works, through the construction of the Aguada Blanca reservoir.

Health and social welfare policy

• - A vast social assistance plan was carried out, through state and international organizations.[53]​.

• - The Ministry of Health was restructured and the National Health Plan was developed.[53]​.

• - The School of Public Health was created to train special personnel for the training of rural inmates and hospital administration.[53]​.

• - The Special Public Health Service was created, whose purpose was to solve the multiple health problems facing the country, mainly in rural areas.

• - With the support of the National Health and Social Welfare Fund (chaired by Octavio Mongrut) extensive hospital work was carried out. The health center hospitals of Tumbes, Trujillo, Huaraz, Cajamarca, Huánuco, Ayacucho, Abancay, Huancavelica, Cuzco, Tingo María, Puno, Rioja, Juanjuí, Aplao, Ica, Chepén, La Unión (Huánuco), Santa Rosa (Lima), Mollendo, Callao, Rímac, Moquegua, Tarapoto, Pucallpa, Chota and San Juan came into operation de Dios (Callao).[53]​ In total, 24 hospitals were built, an enormous achievement if one considers that in the entire history of the Health sector, 49 hospitals had been built, until before the start of the Belaundista government.[54]​.

• - The Children's Hospital, the Maternity Hospital and the Santa Rosa Maternal and Child Hospital in Lima were remodeled, expanded and equipped.[55]​.

• - Honoring his profession as an architect, Belaúnde carried out a vast policy of construction and promotion of collective housing. For this, there was cooperation from the National Health and Social Welfare Fund, the National Housing Board, the Workers' Retirement Fund, the National Employee Social Security Pension Fund, Sogesa and the National Economic Development Fund, plus loans granted by foreign credit institutions. In numerous cities in the country, large housing complexes were built for the popular sectors, education professionals and police, and a large part of the main cities on the Peruvian coast and mountains were urbanized. In Lima, Residencial San Felipe stands out, with its corresponding shopping center, as well as the neighborhood units of Matute, Mirones and Rímac.[56]​.

• - An effective sanitation plan was carried out and a program was drawn up to provide water and sewage services to populations of less than 2,000 inhabitants.

• - The La Punta drainage collector in Callao and the elevated water reservoir service in the same city were delivered to the service.[57]​.

• - Construction of the Lima Civic Center began on the land of the former Central Penitentiary or Panopticon.[57]​.

• - The Park of Legends was inaugurated, in the district of San Miguel "Distrito de San Miguel (Lima)"), in December 1963, which began with an area of ​​24 hectares. Subsequently, about 100 hectares were acquired from the Catholic University in order to develop the Central Park of Lima, which houses the Zoo, the National Museum of Archeology, as well as other museums and recreation facilities.

Justice

• - As a first step in improving the administration of justice, an inventory of the country's judicial reality began to be compiled, in order to establish a new judicial territorial demarcation.

• - To house, protect and study the problem of juvenile delinquency, foster homes for minors and the juvenile police service were created.

• - To rehabilitate the criminal, the probation service and the industrial technical institute of Peru were created, as an entity destined to organize work centers in penal establishments. For the qualification of prison personnel, the Prison Training Center was reimplemented.

• - Emphasis was placed on the construction of penitentiary premises and the Ica Penitentiary Center was inaugurated.

• - Work was intensified for the completion of the Lurigancho Center for the accused.

• - The Callao Courthouse was inaugurated.[58]​.

The government energized its relations with various countries in order to achieve greater political, economic and cultural ties. Following this line, it held bilateral trade conferences with the governments of Finland, Japan, and Portugal and signed technical assistance agreements with Israel and international organizations such as the OAS, the IDB and the ECLAC, and agreements were reached with Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador for the construction of the Bolivarian marginal highway of La Selva.

Peru participated in various international meetings, such as the meeting of foreign ministers in Punta del Este (Uruguay) in April 1967, which prepared the declaration of the American Heads of State who met there between April 12 and 14 (including Belaúnde himself), which agreed on the decision to achieve a free, fair and democratic social order for the free peoples of the continent and their economic integration.

Peru received the official visit of presidents Eduardo Frei Montalva of Chile, Charles de Gaulle of France, Giuseppe Saragat of Italy and René Barrientos of Bolivia, and that of Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. Likewise that of Prince Akihito of Japan and Prince Albert of Liège of Belgium.

• - Thanks to a Peruvian-American bilateral agreement, the United States government supplied equipment for national development, basically related to the road plan.[57]​.

• - An industrial training center was established in each military region for technical preparation by civilian and military professors.

• - The Independencia training ship was acquired, for the training of future naval officers.[57]​.

• - The “Miguel Grau” Nautical School of Callao was reopened.[57]​.

• - The equipment at the Callao shipyards were modernized.[57]​.

• - The Institute of the Sea was created, an entity dedicated to the study of ichthyological wealth, in collaboration with the universities of Duque and Yale in the United States and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.[58]​.

• - The General Directorate of the Merchant Navy was created.

• - The facilities of the Callao Naval Base and the La Punta Naval School were improved.

• - The Industrial Services of the Navy (SIMA) was supported, which made it possible to launch large tonnage units built in shipyards in Peru.

• - Mirage IIIE aircraft were acquired from France for the Peruvian Air Force. The Navy and the Army were also able to renew their war material.

The Talara Act and the scandal on page 11

Upon assuming the presidency, Belaúnde offered to resolve the problem of La Brea and Pariñas in 90 days. This was a shameful lawsuit for the nation that had already been unresolved for several decades; It consisted of the fact that the American transnational company International Petroleum Company (IPC) had been illegally exploiting the La Brea and Pariñas oil fields, located in the north of Peru, without contributing to the treasury the amount owed, which had been accumulating over the years.[59][60]​.

During the first year of government, Belaúnde sent a bill to Congress to declare null and void the so-called Paris Agreement, Convention and Award (signed in 1922, during Leguía's time and which had favored the IPC) and requested that the La Brea and Pariñas fields be placed under the control of the Empresa Petrolera Fiscal (EPF), a Peruvian state company, for greater control and benefit of the State within the Treasury. In response, Congress issued Law No. 14,696, which declared the Award null and void, but did not rule on the transfer of La Brea y Pariñas to the EPF. The Executive Branch promulgated the law on November 4, 1963, thus being authorized to solve the old problem.

But in the following years, the matter remained stagnant, until in 1968, during the fifth year of the Belaúnde government (which would be the last), talks were resumed with the IPC. Apparently, Belaúnde's idea was not only to try to solve the economic-political problem with the company, but he was convinced that solving the problem could generate the foreign economic aid necessary to solve the financial problems, which had begun to show major flaws in the system and in the strengthening of the State. The aid, which was planned, would come from the United States Agency for International Development (AID), in the same amount that had been given to Chile or Colombia. «This economic support mechanism would reduce dependence on expensive supplier credits; On the contrary, the soft loans that come from the Social Program Fund of the IDB and AID would give Peru abundant resources."[61]​.

Thus, in July 1968, negotiations began with the IPC in the Government Palace. Congress had given the corresponding permission for the president and a commission to solve the oil conflicts. The negotiations took an important turn between August 12 and 13, 1968. Finally, the Talara Act was signed&action=edit&redlink=1 "Talara Act (1968) (not yet drafted)"), signed by President Belaúnde, by the president of the Senate Carlos Manuel Cox, by the president of the Chamber of Deputies Andrés Townsend and by senior officials of the IPC.

By the Talara Act, all the La Brea and Pariñas oil fields were transferred to the government so that the EPF could take charge of them, while the IPC kept the already obsolete Talara refinery. A ten-year contract was also made for the sale of natural gas by the EPF to the IPC and a similar six-year contract for the sale of crude oil from La Brea and Pariñas to the IPC refinery in Talara.[62] The IPC would be in charge of the national distribution of the fuel and the so-called Lima Concessions. This new distribution of fuel gave the IPC a monopoly on the market.

This news was highly publicized in the media. The entire country exploded with joy because it was described as the end of the old problem of La Brea and Pariñas. However, public opinion changed when a sector of the press (Oiga magazine) revealed the conditions that the IPC had imposed for the signing of the Act. The peak moment of the scandal came on September 10, when the resigning president of the EPF, engineer Carlos Loret de Mola, denounced on television that a page was missing from the contract that established the conditions for the purchase and sale of crude oil between the EPF and the IPC. That page was the last of three sets of four sides, twelve in total, of a paper called "sello sixth", which was a numbered paper officially issued by the Peruvian State and was used to carry out commercial transactions and contracts in general. Loret de Mola implied that the page had been deliberately lost and that it contained an important part of the general agreement with the IPC, particularly the summary that explained the minimum price of US$ 1.08 for each barrel of crude oil, which the IPC would charge the EPF.[63]​.

Thus the “Página Eleven” scandal broke out, which would be the trigger for the end of the already weakened Belaúnde government.[64] The wave of criticism not only came from Congress and its opposition majority, but was a very strong communication campaign that discredited the agreement, the government and the people who had participated in it. The government was accused of "surrender", as it was supposedly favoring the IPC in the sale of crude oil, in compensation for the delivery of La Brea and Pariñas.

The two strong media outlets that argued against the Act were El Comercio "El Comercio (Perú)") and La Prensa "La Prensa (Perú)"). In addition to this, different positions had been expressed regarding the signed Minute, due to the low cost at which barrels of oil were valued, the 40-year concession of the Talara refinery to the IPC and the speed with which the agreement was reached.

Various interpretations have been made about Page Eleven in Peru. To tell the truth, its existence was never proven, neither by Carlos Loret de Mola, nor by the military government of the 1970s. According to Kuczynski, if that page existed it would be numbered as 28160934, since the numbers of the two previous pages in the four-page folio of sealed paper were 28160932 and 28160933.[65] Some of those who maintained its existence They attributed great importance to it because, apparently, it contained valuable information, accusing the government of having intentionally eliminated it to hide the economic benefits it provided to the IPC in the sale of crude oil, as Loret de Mola claimed. Others argued that it was just a blank page and there were even some who denied its existence. It is said that it appeared shortly before the 1980 elections and contained only the date on which the famous document was signed, thus destroying all responsibility of the Belaúnde government and its officials for some supposed clauses in favor of the IPC.

The great scandal that was created in the media caused a very big crisis within the Government, which was used politically by the opposition. It had very strong political consequences for Belaúnde, such as the breakdown of support from Christian Democracy, the breakup of Acción Popular and the massive rejection of civil society. These events caused weeks of uncertainty.

On October 1, the president of the Council of Ministers Oswaldo Hercelles resigned, and the next day, a new cabinet chaired by Miguel Mujica Gallo was sworn in. A few hours later the coup d'état occurred. The Page 11 scandal had only been the beginning of a very predictable end.

Velasco's 1968 coup

In 1963 the military had supported Belaúnde in the elections especially for his reformist program on agrarian issues, which in the eyes of the armed forces was necessary to guarantee the internal security of the country. However, as Belaúnde's reformist projects were stopped by the APRA-UNO coalition in Congress, the Armed Forces began to grow impatient. Furthermore, APRA seemed to be the party most likely to win in the upcoming 1969 elections. Faced with the enormous possibility of Haya de la Torre coming to power in 1969, rumors of a military coup to prevent it began to become increasingly stronger. The old quarrels between APRA and the military intensified once again, however, this time it would not be because of Haya de la Torre's reformist project. On the contrary, the military did not look favorably on APRA's alliance with the oligarchy, and the obstruction of Belaúnde's reforms. Now APRA and the army found themselves in inverse ideological positions with respect to those they had in the past. However, these positions were, as in the past, contrary.[66]​.

On October 3, 1968, almost ten months after the end of his government, Belaúnde was overthrown by a group of soldiers with a socialist tendency, led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, at that time president of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Peru.

At dawn on October 3, 1968, as three o'clock approached, army tanks arrived at the Plaza de Armas in Lima; From the Government Palace, Fernando Belaúnde called the ministers Roberto Dianderas, of war; Jorge Luna Ferreccio, from the Navy, and José Gagliardi Schiaffino, from Aeronautics, and asked them to take the most drastic measures. The army broke the entrance doors and entered the Government Palace; Then a group of soldiers under the command of Commander Enrique Gallegos arrived at the rooms and led Belaúnde to a truck that took him to the Armored Division barracks. Other tanks took over the premises of the Congress, the prefecture, the premises of Popular Action and APRA, National Radio, the Ministry of the Interior and the Television stations.

At 5 a.m. m. the ministers of state manage to meet in the Chancellery Palace; The Minister of War Dianderas and the Navy were missing. It was agreed that the 2nd vice president Mario Polar would assume the presidency and it was proposed to dismiss all the coup officers. At 6 a.m. m. A large number of Investigative Police officers surrounded the Chancellery Palace and then violently broke into it. The ministers left the premises singing the National Anthem. Meanwhile, at the airport, an APSA plane that the rebel military had prepared to flee in case the coup failed, or deport President Belaúnde in it, was ready to depart if they triumphed.

At 8 a.m. m. President Belaúnde arrived guarded by 3 officers and 20 investigators, who forced him to board the plane. The deposed president was taken to the Ezeiza International Airport, Argentina.

• - On May 24, 1964, the National Stadium tragedy occurred where about 300 people died.

• - On October 17, 1966, an earthquake occurred that devastated Lima, Callao and the northern coastal strip up to Supe, and whose epicenter was in front of Huacho. It also produced a tsunami. Its toll was 220 dead and 1,800 injured.

• - On December 14, 1966, the distinguished intellectual and diplomat Víctor Andrés Belaúnde (Fernando's uncle) died in New York, who went on to preside over the General Assembly of the United Nations.

• - On August 15, 1967, former president Manuel Prado Ugarteche, who governed Peru in two periods: 1939-1945 and 1956-1962, died in Paris.

Ministers

• - Matsé genocide.

• - National Liberation Army "National Liberation Army (Peru)").

• - Revolutionary left movement "Revolutionary Left Movement (Peru)").

• - 1968 coup d'état.

• - NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS AND COMPUTING (INEI). (1994). Statistical Compendium 1993-1994, Volume 1. Lima.