The current president, Alberto Fujimori.               Blank Space

lThe contender, Alejandro Toledo.
Military Involvement In Peruvian Politics

Forunately, the two men above have not had to worry about guns pointing at their heads during the current campaign.  Peru has a long and storied relationship with its military.  Dating all the way back to the Incas, who ruled with an iron fist, and the Spanish, who did likewise, the region’s common peoples have been subjected to the whims of an elitist class which uses military might to quell all opposition.  General Juan Velasco Alvarado (Yes, another Velasco) became the quintessential military dictator in Peru.
 Velasco overthrew an elected and comparatively well liked president in Fernando Belaúnde Terry, whom had proven to be not so competent in the act of running a nation.  Velasco captured popular support by calling for reform, reform, some more reform, and even more reform.  (Dietz 1980, 23).  This seems to be a popular way to get ahead in the region.  He saw the Peruvian nation as a giant corporation, with the military as CEO and the population as the little worker bees.  (Dietz 1980, 26).  This way of looking at things helped him formulate the plan to set up large scale beaurocracies, which would enable nothing to ever actually occur, including him getting overthrown.  Of course, this plan would fail.  The government did in fact actually get some reforms accomplished.  Amazing, considering all the beaurocracy.
 In either case, Peru has remained remarkably stable and the military has not been as nearly a large influence as in some countries (notably, Ecuador and Bolivia).  The present sees a democratically elected president fighting a guerrilla war against a dwindling group of insurgents.  In fact, since Fujimori’s election in 1990, the country has remained comparatively stable.  Fujimori did not seize dictatorial powers; however, with the rise of the Shining Path violent movement, he was able to use martial law, thereby carrying on the great traditions of his highly militarized predecessors like Velasco.
 

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