State of the Nation State

Rich versus poor Lima: Stark Contrast

I find it difficult to understand, much less explain, Peruvian history. In the 20th Century alone, many changes affected the country's current growth spurt.

You might say that Peru is post-pubescent, but that her pre-pubescent youth lasted a particularly long time. Maybe she started her adolescence very late due to malnutrition.

In 1948, the year Israel was created, a military coup instilled President Odria. He lasted a long time as president, and in 1956 allowed free elections, which strikes me as interesting, since he could have rendered himself obsolete.

Twelve years later, General Juan Velasco Alvarado seized power via another military coup, and this brought the nation somewhere between capitalism and socialism (where it still sort of stands today). The Velasco regime sought to eliminate class struggle by eliminating elite patterns of land use and nationalizing public service companies. Family farming became the renewed focus of food production, reverting some parts of Peru back to pre-conquest times. Still, the regime promoted and encouraged Peruvian-borne industry. Let's call this Peru's real growth spurt. Peru bought her own mines (especially copper) but microeconomics and macroeconomics became seriously out of balance, because this new concept was too foreign and the general public didn't really know how to manage all this change. It was a methodological failure, but an ideological breakthrough.

A new military regime overthrew Velasco on my birthday in 1975. General Francisco Morales Bermúda came into power. Remember, this was a time of worldwide petroleum crisis, not unlike the one we're "coming out of" today. Four years later Morales instilled a new constitution, and was reelected. Friends tell me that Morales was the butt of much public mockery, but this was only possible due to the fact that he allowed freedom of press.

At the time, the APRI party did well too, and the current president, Alan Garcia, now in his second term (reelected after a break) is APRIsta. In 1992, Japanese-Peruvian President Fujimori won the election an soon dissolved the Peruvian Congress.

Corruption ran rampant throughout the nation, though Fujimori did end the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a revolutionary terrorist movement that killed or displaced a total of about 220,000 innocent Peruvian civilians. SL was active from about 1960-1992, but most powerful from 1980-1990. There are still teeny strongholds in certain parts of Peru. The general opinion of Fujimori is that while he embezzled millions of dollars from a struggling nation and was actually extradited to Japan, he improved the infrastructure of Peru enough to almost be reelected this last cycle. His daughter, with little political experience, will run for president this next electoral cycle.

Now I'm no expert, and this synopsis is completely incomplete and likely somewhat erroneous, but it seems to me that Peru, like most of Latin America, is affected by revolutions, coups, and instability in general. The difference is, Peru is ABSOLUTELY THRIVING, even in this world economy, with exports of metals and rubber and fish to India and China.

What. The. Hell? Absolutely all the wealth is concentrated in Lima, particularly in this neighborhood of Lima, and the discrepancies between rich and poor are so very vast that I cannot adequately convey the life experience of my neighbor and the people 25 kilometers away, who must burn their trash, because there is no one to take it away, and nowhere to take it.

I just don't think it's sustainable. It's a soap big bubble. And the bigger the bubble, the thinner the walls, no? But what a time to document the story.