Conservatism in Peru

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

The weakness of political parties in Peruvian politics has been recognized throughout the nation's history, with competing leaders fighting for power following the collapse of the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty of Peru.^[10][11][12] The Peruvian War of Independence saw aristocrats with land and wealthy merchants cooperate to fight the Spanish Empire, though the aristocrats would later obtain greater power and lead an oligarchy headed by caudillos that defended the existing feudalist haciendas.^[12]

Bartolomé Herrera is considered the most influential conservative thinker of 19th-century Peru.^[13] Herrera opposed democracy and liberalism strongly supporting elitism and authoritarianism in a belief that the Catholic Church should hold authority through a theocracy of divine law, arguing that Peru's independence from Spain had reversed this, stating "the principle of obedience had perished in the struggle emancipation".^[13] He believed that after the Spanish Empire relinquished its authority over Peru, the new structure of popular sovereignty led to lawlessness in the nation and that citizens only obeyed laws when it was beneficial.^[13] Opposed to the social contract theory, Herrera stated that the idea was "the seed of revolution, crimes and inevitable slave".^[13] Herrera's thoughts would evolve in to believing he was a direct representative of God, stating "Obey the constituted authorities. Let tremble those who do not obey me".^[13] The Peruvian press would describe Herrera's ideas as supporting despotism and that they belonged to the Dark Ages.^[13]

Responding to criticism in the press, Herrera would write:^[13]

"[T]he people, that is, the sum total of individuals of every age and condition, DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY NOR THE RIGHT TO MAKE LAWS"

Thus, Herrera believed that humans could not even interpret natural law, let alone make laws themselves.^[13] He would also supported the caudillo Ramón Castilla, who ruled Peru through the 1800s, believing that his authority helped stabilize Peru.^[13] Herrera temporarily resigned from public life in 1853 after the Congress of Peru blocked a concordat he drafted for Pope Pius IX.^[13] He reappeared in 1860 to become a member and president of Congress, creating a draft of the 1860 Constitution of Peru that supported an undemocratic, elitist agenda that included excluding citizenship for a large percentage of Peruvians, a president chosen through indirect election, a thirty-member senate that was overseen by businessmen who held judicial power and a chamber of deputies who dealt with legislature.^[13] After his proposal was rejected, he angrily resigned from office and stayed out of public life.^[13]

During the time of the Chincha Islands War, guano extraction in Peru led to the rise of an even wealthier aristocracy that established a plutocracy.^[12] A wealthy oligarchy was then created that used candidate-based political parties to control economic interests; a practice that continues to the present day.^[12] This oligarchy was supported by the Catholic Church, which would ignore inequalities in Peru and instead assist governments with appeasing the impoverished majority.^[12] The education system in Peru was also created by the authoritarian governments of conservatives to segregate against indigenous Peruvians, instilling the belief of a hierarchal society and training indigenous groups to live their lives as peasants or soldiers.^[14] Combatting ideologies of indigenismo of the majority and the elite holding Europhile values would arise at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century.^[12]

The Generation of 1900 (Spanish: Generación del 1900) was an influential group of writers, historians and philosophers who created modern Peruvian nationalism, with the group originating from Peruvian intellectual circles during the years after the War of the Pacific, the Civil War of 1884 and the National Reconstruction, near the beginning of the 20th century. These intellectuals were heavily inspired in French and Spanish nationalist movements that emerged after their countries' defeat in Sedan and in Cavite, respectively.^[15]

The writings of Manuel González Prada provided much of the inspiration for nationalist reform in Peru following the War of the Pacific, though he would embrace anarchism instead of liberalism, believing the latter prevented the necessary reform for Peru.^[16] Intellectuals in Peru would seek to create their own nationalist movement, though initially they had complications with deciding its direction since the bases of Peruvian society relied on an authoritarian religious system that accepted natural law, which had been imposed since Spanish colonial period, resulting with intellectuals avoiding secularism altogether.^[16] The group then became limited, fixating on the past while other nations focused on more progressive concerns.^[16]

Members of the Generation of 1900 were primarily influenced by the aristocratic Civilista Party, mainly led by lawyers linked to business interests of England and the United States.^[16] The group had little contact outside of the elite, not making any connections with the indigenous peoples of Peru and saw the United States as an example for Peru; the group believed capitalism and a free market economy was necessary in Peru.^[16] The three main figures of the Generation of 1900 were Francisco García Calderón Rey, José de la Riva-Agüero y Osma, and Víctor Andrés Belaúnde.^[16] The movement was primarily led by Riva-Agüero, who was described as "the magistrate of Peruvian culture" by historian Raúl Porras Barrenechea, with his adoption of fascism occurring following the collapse of the Aristocratic Republic in 1919 and the growing activism of the middle class during the presidency of Augusto B. Leguía.^[16]

According to historian Fernán Altuve, this generation of intellectuals, who would put an end to the liberal-positivist consensus on the interpretation of Peruvian political thought in Peru, were the first generation to give importance to conservative thinking in Peruvian history, rescuing important conservative figures like Bartolomé Herrera or Blas Ostoloza.^[17]

Through the early twentieth century, the Peruvian Armed Forces held political power in Peru.^[18] Manuel A. Odría led a coup against José Luis Bustamante y Rivero in 1948, leading a far-right government until 1956.^[19] His regime would adopt a populist, nationalist and pragmatic character. In the same year, Fernando Belaúnde founded the center-right Acción Popular party. He would later become president in 1963 and held a doctrine called "The Conquest of Peru by Peruvians", which promoted the exploitation of resources in the Amazon rainforest and other outlying areas of Peru through conquest,^[20] stating "only by turning our vision to the interior, and conquering our wilderness as the United States once did, will South America finally achieve true development".^[18] In 1964 in an incident called the Matsé genocide, the Belaúnde administration targeted the Matsés after two loggers were killed, with the Peruvian armed forces and American fighter planes dropping napalm on the indigenous groups armed with bows and arrows, killing hundreds.^[20][21] Belaúnde was removed from office by a military coup led by general Juan Velasco Alvarado in 1968.

Following the Tacnazo and subsequent overthrow of Velasco in 1975, Francisco Morales Bermúdez would lead the Revolutionary Government until 1980, with his military government participating in the political repression of leftists during Operation Condor.^[22] During the Lost Decade of the 1980s and internal conflict, political parties became weaker once again.^[10][23] Belaúnde was re-elected in 1980 and became even more conservative, bringing neoliberal reforms to Peru that were unsuccessful due to low commodity prices.^[24] Angered with social-democrat President Alan García's inability to combat the crises in the nation, the armed forces began planning a coup in the late 1980s known as Plan Verde; it involved the genocide of impoverished and indigenous Peruvians, the control or censorship of media in the nation and the establishment of a neoliberal economy controlled by a military junta in Peru.^[25][26][27] Peruvians shifted their support for authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori, who was supported by the military and made a figurehead leader of Peru following his win in the 1990 Peruvian general election.^[10][23][28]

Former social democrat Alan García grew more conservative during his second tenure and took implementation of the Lima Consensus even further, adopting policies similar to Augusto Pinochet and combatting with indigenous groups opposed to mining in their communities, events culminating with the 2009 Peruvian political crisis that saw civilians against an oil development in the Amazon rainforest massacred.^[29][30]

During the presidencies of Ollanta Humala, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Martín Vizcarra, Congress was dominated by the opposition Popular Force, the party created by the daughter of the former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, Keiko Fujimori, and opposed many of the actions performed by the presidents.^[31][32][33] During the government of Pedro Castillo, conservative groups in Peru used social media to spread fake news and for the incitement of violence, especially on TikTok.^[34]