Fernando Belaúnde Terry

Fernando Belaúnde Terry

Fernando Belaúnde Terry (born October 7, 1912 in Lima , Peru ; † June 4, 2002 in Lima), architect and politician, was Peruvian President twice, from 1963 to 1968 and from 1980 to 1985. He was deposed in a coup in 1968 and was re-elected in 1980 after twelve years of military rule. Both terms of office were marked by economic turmoil and an increase in guerrilla activity. There were human rights violations by both the insurgents and the Peruvian army . Nevertheless, Belaúnde was very respected for his personal integrity and his commitment to a democratic Peru.

biography

Fernando Belaúnde Terry was born in Lima in 1912, the second of four children to a wealthy, politically active family. His grandfather Mariano A. Belaúnde was Peruvian finance minister, his uncle Víctor Andrés Belaúnde was President of the UN General Assembly in 1959/60 . The family moved to France , where Fernando attended school.

Belaúnde studied architecture in the United States and France from 1924 to 1935 . He graduated from the University of Austin , Texas. After a short time in Mexico, he returned to Peru in 1936, where he started his career at the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería . After several years he was appointed Dean of the Architecture Department.

Belaúndes began his political career in 1956 when he founded the Acción Popular party . He ran for the presidential election for the "National Front of Democratic Youth" movement. He gained a great deal of popular approval, but it was not enough to defeat Manuel Prado . Between 1956 and 1962 Belaúnde traveled a lot in the country to gain experience and ideas and to shape the ideological principles of his party.

Belaúnde also stood as the top candidate for the Acción Popular in the 1962 presidential elections. He was narrowly beaten by the APRA candidate who, however, missed the minimum of a third of the votes required for election. The military intervened on charges of electoral fraud , deposed incumbent Prado and installed a junta. In the elections held the following year, Belaúnde finally prevailed.

First term of office

During his first term in office, Belaúnde initiated numerous development projects. Among them was the Carretera Marginal de la Selva, a national road which opened up from Chiclayo on the Pacific to the previously isolated northern provinces of Amazonas and San Martín . He supported ambitious irrigation projects in Santiago Antunez de Mayolo and Chira Piura and the construction of the hydroelectric power plants of Tinajones, Jequetepeque, Majes, Chavimochic, Olmos and Chinecas. Belaúnde was a leader in establishing the Peruvian National Bank (Banco de la Nación). To alleviate poverty in the country, he carried out a program to build social housing in Lima and other cities, which benefited hundreds of thousands of families. However, his government was held responsible for making bad economic decisions. By 1967 the Peruvian sol had lost a lot of its value. The attempt to nationalize American Standard Oil brought the government into opposition to the United States. After the beginnings of land reform, the United States cut development aid. In addition, Washington stopped selling weapons to Peru. Lima was able to compensate for this for the time being through purchases in France from Charles de Gaulle.

In 1968 the government announced the solution to the long-running conflict with a subsidiary of the US American Standard Oil over the large oil fields of La Brea and Pariñas. The decision to pay compensation to Standard Oil for handing over the production technology, however, caused an uproar among the population and forced Belaúndes cabinet to resign on October 1st. The fact that Belaúnde had initially only made the first ten pages of the document available to the press contributed to the annoyance of the Peruvians. The publication of the eleventh page on Peruvian television, on which the compensation amount to be paid was stated, resulted in Belaúndes being deposed by the military a few days later. His successor was General Velasco .

Second term of office

In the next free elections in 1980, Belaúnde was re-elected president. He set up a new constitution at the beginning of the term (the previous one had been repealed by his predecessor in 1975). Step by step he reversed the land reform carried out by General Velasco and brought Peru back closer to the United States. During his five years in office, incomes fell, Peru's external debt rose, and violence by left-wing guerrilla organizations, particularly the Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), increased. Belaúndes government was accused of numerous human rights abuses; Organizations like APRODEH estimate that 1,230 people disappeared during his second term. In the 1985 elections, Belaúnde was defeated by APRA candidate Alan García .

Fernando Belaúnde died in Lima in 2002 at the age of 89.

See also: History of Peru

literature

• Fernando Belaúnde Terry , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 41/2002 of September 30, 2002, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Fernando Belaúnde Terry  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David X. Noack: Allende was part of a larger movement. In: amerika21. January 25, 2011, accessed January 26, 2011 .