Alan García
Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, and its only member to serve as president. Mentored by the APRA's founder, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, he served in the Constituent Assembly of 1978–1979. Elected to the Peruvian Congress in 1980, he rose to the position of General Secretary of the APRA in 1982, and was elected to the presidency in 1985 in a landslide.
García's first presidential term was marked by a severe economic crisis, social unrest, corruption, and violence. At its conclusion, he was accused and investigated for corruption and illicit enrichment. In 1992, he filed for asylum following president Alberto Fujimori's self-coup, and exiled himself with his family in Colombia and France for nine years. In the aftermath of Fujimori's downfall, he made a political comeback as he ran for the presidency in 2001, but lost in the second round to Alejandro Toledo. In 2006, he was again elected president, defeating Ollanta Humala, a feat considered a political resurrection due to the failure of his first term.
Throughout García's second term, Peru experienced a steady economy, becoming Latin America's fastest-growing country in 2008, surpassing China in terms of rising GDP. This economic success was acclaimed as a triumph by world leaders, and poverty declined from 48% to 28% nationally. In addition, Peru signed free trade agreements with the United States and China during García's presidency, but accusations of corruption persisted throughout his term and beyond. He was succeeded by Humala in 2011. He withdrew from party politics after failing to advance to the second round of the 2016 general election, placing fifth in his bid for a third presidential term under the Popular Alliance coalition between his party and the Christian People's Party, which included former rival Lourdes Flores as one of his running mates. On 17 April 2019, García died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head as police officers under a prosecutor's orders were preparing to arrest him over matters relating to the Odebrecht scandal.
García is considered one of Peru's most controversial yet talented politicians. He was known as an immensely charismatic orator, but a 2017 poll of Peruvians named García and his government the most corrupt.
Early life
Born in the Maison de Santé Clinic of the Barranco District into a middle-class family, García met his father for the first time when he was five due to his father's imprisonment at El Sexto Prison for being a member of the Peruvian Aprista Party. His mother founded the party's base in the Camaná Province of the Arequipa Region. From a very young age, he accompanied his father to party meetings and became acquainted with future leaders of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, such as Luis Alva Castro and Mercedes Cabanillas. At age 14, he was already an immensely talented orator when he first gave a speech in honour of party founder Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, whom he admired and followed until his death.García studied law, first at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and later earning a bachelor's degree from the National University of San Marcos in 1971. A year later, he left Peru for Spain, where he pursued a doctoral degree in constitutional law under the guidance of Manuel Fraga. For years García claimed to have earned the degree; in 2014, however, documents from the university proved he never finished the work for it. In 1974, he moved to France with other members of the APRA to study at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 and the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l´Amérique latine. After earning a diploma in sociology from IHEAL, he was called by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre to come back to Peru in order to run for the Constituent Assembly election in 1978. García was elected a Member of the Assembly, where he impressed his colleagues with his oratory and skillful rhetoric. As APRA's Secretary of Organization, he was assigned to conduct the party's public affairs in the wake of Haya de la Torre's death in 1979.
From his first marriage, García had one daughter, Carla, who is also active in Peruvian politics since 2014. With his second wife Pilar Nores, from whom he separated in 2010, García had four children. He also had another child from an extramarital affair with economist Roxanne Cheesman.
Already recognized as a young leader with a bright future in the country, he was elected to Congress in 1980. Two years later, he was elected General Secretary of the Peruvian Aprista Party. He was elected to serve as president of the Republic in the 1985 general elections.
First presidency (1985–1990)
García won the presidential election on 14 April 1985 with 45% of the votes. Since he did not receive the 50% of the votes required for a first-round victory, a runoff was scheduled between him and Alfonso Barrantes of the United Left party. But Barrantes withdrew from the runoff, saying he did not want to prolong the country's political uncertainty. García was thus declared President on 1 June and took power on 28 July. For the first time in its 60-year history, the APRA party came to power in Peru. Aged 36, García was dubbed "Latin America's Kennedy", becoming the region's youngest president at the time and the second-youngest president in Peruvian history.File:Felipe González recibe al presidente de Perú. Pool Moncloa. 30 de enero de 1987.jpeg|thumb|left|Alan García and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González at Moncloa Palace, January 1987.
His economic policy was based on APRA's initial anti-imperialist values. García distanced Peru from international markets, resulting in lower investment in the country. Despite his initial popularity among voters, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% over five years, destabilizing the Peruvian economy. Foreign debt under García's administration increased to $19 billion by 1989. Owing to this chronic inflation, the Peruvian currency, the sol, was replaced by the inti in February 1985, which itself was replaced by the nuevo sol in July 1991, at which time the new sol had a cumulative value of one billion old soles.
According to studies by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics and the United Nations Development Programme, around the start of his presidency, 41.6% of Peruvians lived in poverty. During his presidency, this increased to 55% in 1991. García also attempted to nationalise the banking and insurance industries. The International Monetary Fund and the financial community recoiled after García's administration unilaterally declared a limit on debt repayment equal to 10% of the Gross National Product, thereby isolating Peru from international financial markets.
His presidency was marked by corruption and world-record hyperinflation, with the annual rate exceeding 13,000%. The administration devastated the local economy as well as all governmental institutions. Hunger, corruption, injustice, abuse of power, partisan elitism, and social unrest rose to dramatic levels throughout the nation due to García's misdeeds and incompetence, spurring terrorism. The economic turbulence exacerbated social tensions and contributed in great part to the rise of the violent Maoist rebel movement known as the Shining Path, which launched the internal conflict in Peru and began attacking electrical towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The period also saw the emergence of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, allegedly committing human rights violations, which are still under investigation. These include the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned down by armed forces in August 1985; the Cayara massacre, in which some 30 people were killed and dozens disappeared; and the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista and Santa Bárbara in 1986. According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced disappearances took place during García's presidency. His own personal involvement in these events is not clear. García was allegedly tied to the paramilitary Rodrigo Franco Command, which is accused of carrying out political murders in Peru during his presidency. A U.S. declassified report, written in late 1987, said that APRA and top government officials were running a paramilitary group responsible for the attempted bombing of the El Diario newspaper, then linked to Shining Path, had sent people to train in North Korea, and may have been involved in executions. According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, the report made clear that García had given the orders.
García's historical economic failures were used by economists Rudi Dornbusch and Sebastian Edwards to coin the term macroeconomic populism. Because of García's unpopularity by the end of his first term, at his farewell speech on 28 July 1990 he was booed by the entire opposition forces and almost prevented from speaking. The opposition forces slammed their folders in their desks to interrupt García. Some opposition members even left the congress. The event was televised.
Later that day, the board of the Chamber of Deputies requested the creation of a special committee to investigate García's presidency, accusing him of massive corruption and illicit enrichment. The committee attacked García with numerous proven accusations involving embezzlement, misappropriation and bribery, based on—among other sources—a U.S. congressional investigation that linked him to the BCCI scandal and had found millions of illicitly obtained dollars in BCCI as well as other banks.
In 1991, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged García officially. Later in 1992, then-U.S. Senator John Kerry presided over the BCCI scandal report, which concluded García was not only guilty of corruption but directly involved in an international racketeering network with activities that included drug and arms trafficking. Finally, the Peruvian Supreme Court declared null all the probes and constitutional accusations gathered against García, allowing him to return to Peru after a 9-year self-imposed exile.