Piura, 1910 – Lima (Perú), 1977
By Heraclio Bonilla
Between 1968 and 1979, a group of Peruvian Army officers decided to implement radical reforms in response to the crisis affecting society and threatening the country’s institutional stability. The central figure in this context was General Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado.
Alvarado was born in the north, in the city of Piura, on June 16, 1910. Coming from a humble background, he completed his early education at São Miguel School in his hometown. After finishing his studies, he traveled to Lima and, in 1929, joined the Army as a volunteer, eventually studying at the School of Classes and rising to the rank of corporal. The following year, he entered the Military School of Chorrillos and graduated in 1934 as a second lieutenant of infantry. Ten years later, in 1944, he transferred to the Superior War School, where he taught after completing his studies. Between 1950 and 1953, he served as the director of the Military School of Chorrillos, and in 1959, when he was a brigadier general, he was appointed director-general of the National Shooting Program. He reached the general command of the Second Light Division in 1960 and the position of chief of the Divisionary General Staff of the First Military Region, headquartered in Piura, in 1964.
After serving as a military attaché in France and being part of the Peruvian delegation to the Inter-American Defense Board, he returned to Peru in 1966 and held the position of Army Inspector General. In September of that year, he was appointed chief of the Army General Staff. After taking command of the Army in 1968, he assumed the presidency of the joint command of the Armed Forces, leading the institutional coup of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces, whose initial action was the occupation of the oil fields controlled by the International Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil.
The reforms promoted by Velasco Alvarado and his closest collaborators, along with other officers and some civilians, aimed to dismantle the economic and cultural foundations of the traditional oligarchy. To achieve this goal, a land reform was carried out that liquidated the traditional farms in the highlands and the agro-industrial plantations on the coast, and an industrial property reform was initiated, establishing industrial communities. Banks and insurance companies were nationalized, foreign capital control in some companies was reduced, and media outlets were confiscated, laying the groundwork for an educational reform. These resources and assets came under the control of the State and its agencies, resulting in state capitalism managed by significant public enterprises. Despite its radicalism, the outcomes of these reforms were limited in their ability to transfer surpluses to the population, while the land was insufficient to meet the demands of the rural population. The vertical and authoritarian character that marked his government, the inconsistencies of his “neither capitalist nor communist” model, the open manipulation of political actors, and the hostility of international capital and domestic political parties and unions isolated the government and made it vulnerable to the tensions of unmet demands. A serious illness debilitated Velasco Alvarado, who was, in practice, the only officer convinced of the need for profound changes to the economic and social foundations of Peru. In August 1975, he was ousted from power. His successor and the main promoter of the institutional coup that deposed him, General Francisco Morales Bermúdez, took charge of dismantling these reforms and initiating the restoration of traditional order. The enormous crowd that attended Alvarado’s funeral in December 1977 was a posthumous testament to the recognition of a man who was undoubtedly a key figure in the most significant changes in the history of 20th-century Peru.
