American Popular Revolutionary Alliance
Encyclopedia
The Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana is a centre-left
Centre-left
Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...

 Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

vian political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

.

At the legislative elections
Peruvian national election, 2006
The first round of the 2006 Peruvian national election was held on April 9, 2006 to elect the President of the Republic, two Vice-Presidents, 120 Members of Congress, and five Peruvian members of the Andean Parliament , for the 2006-2011 period.No single presidential ticket obtained more than half...

 held on 9 April 2006, the party won 22.6% of the popular vote and 36 out of 120 seats in the Congress of the Republic
Congress of Peru
The Congress of the Republic of Peru or the National Congress of Peru is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru.Congress consists of 130 members of congress , who are elected for five year periods in office on a proportional representation basis...

. Its presidential candidate at the elections of the same day, Alan García, won 22.6% of the vote and went on to win the second round on 4 June 2006 with 52.6%.

History

APRA was originally founded by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian political leader who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance political movement.-Life:Haya de la Torre was born in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo...

 in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 on 7 May 1924 with aspirations to becoming a continent-wide party, and it subsequently influenced a number of other Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n political movements, including Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

's Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement is a Bolivian political party, perhaps the most important in the country during the 20th century. At the legislative elections in 2002, the party won, in an alliance with the Free Bolivia Movement, 26.9% of the popular vote and 36 out of 130 seats in the...

 (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, MNR) and Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

's National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional, PLN).

It is the oldest surviving political party in Peru and one of the best established. APRA is as much a social phenomenon as a political movement, with a membership whose loyalty to the party has been unwavering for several generations.

APRA initially espoused anti-imperialism, Pan-Americanism, international solidarity and economic nationalism. Years of repression and clandestinity, as well as Haya de la Torre's single-handed dominance of the party, resulted in striking sectarian and hierarchical traits. The party's structure and its hold over its rank and file proved more lasting than its original program.

Opportunistic ideological swings to the right by Haya de la Torre in the 1950s, in exchange for attaining legal status for the party, resulted in an exodus of some of APRA's most talented young leaders to the Marxist left.

Political activity since 1980

After several years of military rule, APRA was allowed to participate as a legal political party in 1979. The party gathered strong support from the electorate, managing to win a majority of seats in the newly created Constitutional Assembly, and supervised the first democratic elections in 12 years.

Haya de la Torre was elected president of the Constituent Assembly and was slated to run as the party's presidential candidate in 1980. However, he died before the election. The party was divided between Armando Villanueva and Andres Townsend, each one of them claiming to be the political and ideological heirs of Haya de la Torre. APRA chose Villanueva as its candidate, while Townsend and other members left the party to create the Movimiento de Bases Hayistas. The split among the Apristas allowed former president Fernando Belaúnde Terry
Fernando Belaúnde Terry
Fernando Belaúnde Terry was President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms . Deposed by a military coup in 1968, he was re-elected in 1980 after eleven years of military rule...

 of Acción Popular to win the election.

However, APRA managed to win in virtual control of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. It was also during these election that Alan García started his political career, after being elected Deputy for the Province of Lima.

The youthful and charismatic García was elected president on April 14, 1985 with 45% of the vote during the first round. Since he did not receive the 50% of the vote required to win the presidency, García was required to enter the second round against Alfonso Barrantes Lingán
Alfonso Barrantes Lingán
Alfonso Barrantes Lingán was a Peruvian politician most active in the mid-1980s.-Mayor of Lima:Affiliated with the United Left Party, he was the mayor of Lima from 1984 to 1986...

 (the leftist mayor of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

) of the Izquierda Unida
United Left (Peru)
United Left was an alliance of leftist political parties in Peru founded in 1980 by Popular Democratic Unity , Revolutionary Left Union , Peruvian Communist Party , Revolutionary Socialist Party , Revolutionary Communist Party and FOCEP.In 1984 UDP and a part of PCR converted itself into the...

 Coalition. Barrantes, however, decided not to enter the second round of the elections, saying he did not want to prolong the political uncertainty of the country.

García was thus declared president on June 1 and officially took power on July 28, 1985. It was the first time in its sixty-year history that the populist APRA party had come to power in Peru.

His presidency was marked by hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...

 with the annual rate exceeding 7,500 percent by the end of the period.

In May 1989, APRA chose as its standard bearer Luis Alva Castro
Luis Alva Castro
Luis Juan Alva Castro is a Peruvian politician. He was born on February 17, 1942, in the city of Trujillo. He served as the 2nd Vicepresident of the Republic, Prime Minister and President of Peruvian Chamber of Deputies during the government of President Alan García.He was elected to the Peruvian...

, a long-time rival to García.
Despite APRA's less-than-successful time in power, it managed to obtain 19.6 percent of the vote in the first round of the 1990 elections, more than any of the other parties.

For the final runoff, it is thought that APRA may have cut a deal with Cambio 90
Cambio 90
Cambio 90-Nueva Mayoría was a right-wing Peruvian political party which entered the political spectrum in early 1990, and by June 1991 was the most powerful political force in the nation....

, Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability, though his methods have drawn charges of...

, to prevent the leading candidate Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...

 from getting elected. In any case, Fujimori was subsequently elected.

At the 2001 legislative elections
Elections in Peru
In Peru, the people directly elect a head of state as well as a legislature. The president is elected by the people for a five year term...

, the party won 19.7 % of the popular vote and 26 out of 120 seats in Congress
Congress of Peru
The Congress of the Republic of Peru or the National Congress of Peru is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru.Congress consists of 130 members of congress , who are elected for five year periods in office on a proportional representation basis...

. Its presidential candidate at the elections of the same day, Alan García Pérez
Alan García Pérez
Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez was the President of Peru, having won the 2006 elections on 4 June 2006 in a run-off against Union for Peru candidate Ollanta Humala. He is the leader of the APRA and the only party member ever to have served as President of Peru. He served a first term as...

, won 25.8 % of the vote and was defeated in the second round by Alejandro Toledo
Alejandro Toledo
Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique is a politician who was President of Peru from 2001 to 2006. He was elected in April 2001, defeating former President Alan García...

.

In February 2005, García officially commenced his campaign for the 2006 presidential election
Peruvian national election, 2006
The first round of the 2006 Peruvian national election was held on April 9, 2006 to elect the President of the Republic, two Vice-Presidents, 120 Members of Congress, and five Peruvian members of the Andean Parliament , for the 2006-2011 period.No single presidential ticket obtained more than half...

. He came in second place by a slim margin over Lourdes Flores
Lourdes Flores
Lourdes Celmira Rosario Flores Nano is a Peruvian politician and lawyer. She currently leads the Unidad Nacional ' alliance and the Partido Popular Cristiano ' in Peru, which is the most well-known right-of-center party of the country.-Biography:Lourdes Flores was born in Lima on 7 October 1959...

, and faced Ollanta Humala
Ollanta Humala
Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso is a Peruvian politician and the President of Peru. Humala, who previously served as an army officer, lost the presidential election in 2006 but won the 2011 presidential election in a run-off vote...

 in a run-off election on June 4. He became president again as Humala conceded after exit polls and partial vote counts showed García leading. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/49A76531-B028-4524-A697-9270F81738A8.htm. He officially took power on July 28, 2006.

APRA is a member of the Socialist International
Socialist International
The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...

.
The youth organization of APRA is known as Juventud Aprista Peruana
Juventud Aprista Peruana
Juventud Aprista Peruana is the youth organization of Partido Aprista Peruano in Peru. It is a member of the International Union of Socialist Youth. JAP used to be a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. Many APRA Politician's have camed from CHAP at young age before going to JAP...

.

Hilda Gadea
Hilda Gadea
Hilda Gadea Acosta was a Peruvian economist, leftist leader, and author. She was Che Guevara's first wife....

 - the first female Secretary of the Economy of the Executive National Committee for APRA; later married Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 and wrote a memoir.

Presidential candidates of APRA

  • 1931 - Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
    Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
    Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian political leader who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance political movement.-Life:Haya de la Torre was born in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo...

  • 1962 - Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
    Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
    Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian political leader who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance political movement.-Life:Haya de la Torre was born in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo...

  • 1963 - Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
    Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
    Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian political leader who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance political movement.-Life:Haya de la Torre was born in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo...

  • 1980 - Armando Villanueva
    Armando Villanueva
    Armando Villanueva Del Campo is a historical leader of the Peruvian American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, better known as APRA. Born in Lima, his parents were Pedro Villanueva Urquijo, a gynecologist in the city, and Carmen Rosa Portal del Campo. His only legitimate sibling was his older...

     (Note: Andrés Townsend, also a prominent member of the Party, participated on this elections under the Hayist Bases Movement
    Hayist Bases Movement
    Hayist Bases Movement was a splinter-group of APRA in Peru that was founded in 1981. MBH was led by Andrés Townsend Ezcurra and Francisco Diez Canseco Távara....

    )
  • 1985 - Alan García
  • 1990 - Luis Alva Castro
    Luis Alva Castro
    Luis Juan Alva Castro is a Peruvian politician. He was born on February 17, 1942, in the city of Trujillo. He served as the 2nd Vicepresident of the Republic, Prime Minister and President of Peruvian Chamber of Deputies during the government of President Alan García.He was elected to the Peruvian...

  • 1995 - Mercedes Cabanillas Bustamante
  • 2000 - Abel Salinas
    Abel Salinas
    Abel Salinas Izaguirre is a Peruvian politician. In 1985 under Alan García government he served as Interior Minister, in 1987 as Energy Minister and in 1988 Finance Minister...

  • 2006 - Alan García

APRA Congressmen for the period Jul-2005 to Jul-2011

Elías Nicolás Rodríguez Zavaleta (Representing La Libertad Region).

Benítez Vásquez Tula (Representing La Libertad Region).

See also

  • 2008 Peru oil scandal
    2008 Peru oil scandal
    The 2008 Peru oil scandal started after a Peruvian TV station broadcast an audio tape of an alleged conversation between a government official and a lobbyist agreeing to help a firm win contracts...

  • 2009 Peruvian political crisis
    2009 Peruvian political crisis
    The 2009 Peruvian political crisis resulted from the ongoing opposition to oil development in the Peruvian Amazon, with local Native Americans opposing Petroperú and the National Police...

  • Peruvian prison massacres
    Peruvian prison massacres
    The Peruvian prison massacres occurred on June 18–19, 1986, after a series of riots in the San Pedro, Santa Mónica, and El Frontón prisons in Lima and Callao...


External links

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