View source for Juan Velasco Alvarado

{{Short description|President of Peru from 1968 to 1975}}
{{other people|Juan Velasco}}
{{family name hatnote|Velasco|Alvarado|lang=Spanish}}
{{use mdy dates|date=April 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = 
| imagesize           = 
| name                = Juan Velasco Alvarado
| order               = 
| office              = 50th [[President of Peru]]
| status              = 1st [[Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru|President of the Revolutionary<br/>Government of the Armed Forces]]
| image               = Juan F. Velasco Alvarado.jpg
| predecessor         = [[Fernando Belaúnde Terry|Fernando Belaúnde]]
| primeminister       = [[Ernesto Montagne Sánchez]]<br />[[Luis Edgardo Mercado Jarrín]]<br />[[Francisco Morales Bermúdez]]
| successor           = [[Francisco Morales Bermúdez]]
| order2              = [[Peruvian Army|General Commander of the Peruvian Army]]
| predecessor2        = Julio Doig Sánchez
| president2          = [[Fernando Belaúnde Terry]]
| successor2          = Ernesto Montagne Sánchez
| birth_name          = Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1910|6|16}}
| birth_place         = [[Castilla District|Castilla]], [[History of Peru#Reconstruction, the Aristocratic Republic, and Leguía's 11-year rule (1884–1930)|Peru]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1977|12|24|1910|6|16}}
| death_place         = [[Lima]], [[Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru|Peru]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Consuelo Gonzales Posada]]|1940}}
| profession          = [[Officer (armed forces)|Military officer]]
| term_start          = October 3, 1968
| term_end            = August 30, 1975
| term_start2         = 1967
| term_end2           = 1968
| allegiance          = {{flag|Peru}}
| branch              = {{army|Peru}}
| rank                = [[General]]
}}

'''Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado'''{{efn|{{IPA|es|ˌxwan fɾanˌsisko beˌlasko albaˈɾado}}}} (June 16, 1910 – December 24, 1977) was a Peruvian [[Army general|general]] and politician who was the [[dictator]] of [[Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru|Peru from 1968 to 1975]] after a successful [[1968 Peruvian coup d'état|coup d'état]] against [[Fernando Belaúnde]]'s presidency. Under his [[Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru|dictatorship]], [[nationalism]], as well as left-leaning policies that addressed [[Indigenous peoples of Peru|indigenous Peruvians]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Mauceri |first=Philip |date=Winter 1995 |title=State reform, coalitions, and the neoliberal 'autogolpe' in Peru |journal=[[Latin American Research Review]] |volume=30 |issue=1|pages=7–37 |doi=10.1017/S0023879100017155 |s2cid=252749746 |doi-access=free }}</ref> such as [[nationalization]] or [[Peruvian Agrarian Reform|agrarian reform]] were adopted. These policies were reversed after another [[Tacnazo|coup d'état]] in 1975 led by his Prime Minister, [[Francisco Morales Bermúdez]].

Velasco had a confrontational foreign policy towards the United States, as he pushed for renegotiation of treaties and criticized what he perceived as a pernicious dependence of Latin American states on the United States.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Brands |first=Hal |date=2010 |title=The United States and the Peruvian Challenge, 1968–1975 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2010.508418 |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=471–490 |doi=10.1080/09592296.2010.508418 |s2cid=154119414 |issn=0959-2296}}</ref> While he strengthened Peruvian relations with the Soviet Union, Velasco was firmly anti-communist.<ref name=":0" /> His foreign policy has been described as "[[Non-Aligned Movement|third way]]."<ref name=":0" />

== Early life ==
Juan Velasco was born in Castilla, a city near [[Piura]] on Peru's north coast. He was the son of Manuel José Velasco, a medical assistant, and Clara Luz Alvarado, who had 11 children. Velasco described his youth as one of "dignified poverty, working as a shoeshine boy in Piura."<ref name="masterson-mil-228-229">{{cite book|title=Militarism and politics in Latin America: Peru from Sánchez Cerro to Sendero Luminoso|author=Masterson, Daniel M. |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1991|isbn=978-0-313-27213-4|pages=228–229|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYm4wmXl2M4C&pg=PA228}}</ref>

In 1929, he stowed away on a ship to [[Lima, Peru]], falsified his age, and tried to enlist as an officer in the [[Peruvian Army]]. However, he arrived late to the exam, so he joined as a private on April 5, 1929. A year later, he took a competitive exam for entrance into the ''[[Chorrillos Military School|Escuela Militar de Chorrillos]]'', and got the highest score of all applicants. In 1934,<ref name="Masterson 1991, p. 248">{{cite book|title=Militarism and politics in Latin America: Peru from Sánchez Cerro to Sendero Luminoso|author=Masterson, Daniel M. |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1991|isbn=978-0-313-27213-4|page=248|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYm4wmXl2M4C&pg=PA248}}</ref> he graduated with high honors and at the head of his class.<ref name="masterson-mil-228-229" />

He married [[Consuelo Gonzales Posada]] in 1940, with whom he had several children.<ref>"Perú, Lima, Registro Civil, 1874-1996," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGXQ-SWXR : 11 April 2020), Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado and Maria Consuelo González Posada, ; citing Marriage Registration, 123, 123, Archivo General de la Nación (General Archives of the Nation), Lima; FHL microfilm .</ref>

== Coup d'etat against President Fernando Belaunde ==
{{main|1968 Peruvian coup d'état}}
During the [[Fernando Belaúnde]]'s administration (1963–1968), political disputes became a norm as he held no majority in Congress. Serious arguments between President Belaúnde and Congress, dominated by the [[American Popular Revolutionary Alliance|APRA]]-[[Odriist National Union|UNO]] (Unión Nacional Odríista) coalition, and even between the President and his own ''[[Popular Action (Peru)|Acción Popular]]'' (Popular Action) party were common. Congress went on to censure several cabinets of the Belaunde administration, and a general political instability was perceived.<ref name=sp>{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PQrxtQBuYM|title=Sucedió en el Perú - Juan Velasco Alvarado|date=2016-10-17|publisher=[[TV Perú]]}}</ref>

Also, between 1964 and 1965 the army had been sent to deal with two military uprisings inspired by the Cuban Revolution. Through the use of guerrilla tactics, both the [[National Liberation Army (Peru)|National Liberation Army (ELN)]] commanded by [[Héctor Béjar]] and [[Javier Heraud]], and the [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Peru)|Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR)]], led by an APRA militant, [[Luis de la Puente Uceda]], and Guillermo Lobatón, tried to instigate a revolution, being unsuccessful. Nevertheless, these conflicts led several military officers to the most impoverished parts of the country, and after witnessing the reality of the country-side and studying the reasons which led to the uprisings, they began to consider social inequality and poverty as a danger to national security.<ref>''La Revolución por Decreto''. Dirk Krujit, 1991.</ref>

A dispute with the [[International Petroleum Company]] over licenses to the ''[[La Brea y Pariñas]]'' oil fields in northern Peru sparked a national scandal when a key page of a contract (the 11th) was found missing.<ref>''The United States and Peru: cooperation at a cost''. [[Cynthia McClintock]], 2003, pg. 25.</ref> The [[Military of Peru|Armed Forces]], fearing that this scandal might lead to another uprising or a takeover from the APRA party, seized absolute power and close down Congress, almost all of whose members were briefly incarcerated.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} General Velasco seized power on October 3, 1968, in a bloodless military coup, deposing the democratically elected administration of [[Fernando Belaúnde Terry|Fernando Belaúnde]], under which he served as Commander of the Armed Forces. President Belaúnde was sent into exile.  Initial reaction against the coup evaporated after five days when on October 8, 1968, the oil fields in dispute were taken over by the Army.<ref name=sp/>

== Military dictatorship (1968–1975) ==
The coup leaders named their administration the [[Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru|Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces]], with Velasco at its helm as President.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rpp.pe/peru/historia/a-50-anos-del-golpe-de-velasco-alvarado-las-secuelas-persisten-en-peru-noticia-1153866?ref=rpp|title=A 50 años del golpe de Velasco Alvarado, las secuelas persisten en Perú|date=2018-10-03|website=[[RPP Noticias]]}}</ref> Velasco's administration articulated a desire to give justice to the poor through a regime of nationalization known as ''Peruanismo''. Velasco's rule was characterized by broadly social democratic, developmentalist, and independent nationalist policies, which aimed to create a strong national industry to increase the international independence of Peru. To that end, he nationalised entire industries, expropriated companies in a wide range of activities from fisheries to mining to telecommunications to power production and consolidated them into single industry-centric government-run entities{{efn|A few examples were as follows:
* ''[[Fishing industry|PescaPeru]]''
*''[[Mineral industry of Peru|MineroPeru]]''
*''[[Petroperú]]''
*''[[SIDERPERU|SiderPeru]]''
*''[[Mining|Centromin Peru]]''
*''[[Electric power industry|ElectroPeru]]''
*''[[ENAPU|Enapu]]''
*''[[:es:ENATRU|EnatruPeru]]''
*''[[Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles del Peru|Enafer]]''
*''[[Compañía Peruana de Teléfonos]]''
*''[[Telecommunications|EntelPeru]]''
*''[[Post office|Correos del Peru]]''}}, and increased government control over economic activity by enforcing those entities as monopolies and disincentivized private activity in those sectors. Most reforms were planned by leftist intellectuals of the time.

A root and branch education reform was implemented, seeking to promote inclusivity among all Peruvians and move them towards to a new national way of thinking and feeling; the poor and the most excluded were prioritized in this system. The ''Día del Indio'' or ''Peruvian Indian's day'' became ''Día del Campesino'' or ''Peruvian Peasant's day.'' This holiday fell on June 24, a traditional holiday of the land, since it was the day of winter [[solstice]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://siar.regioncajamarca.gob.pe/novedades/dia-campesino|title=Día del Campesino|date=2019-06-24|website=Sistema de Información Ambiental Regional de Cajamarca}}</ref>

The education reform of 1972 provided for [[Intercultural bilingual education|bilingual education]] for the [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] people of the Andes and the Amazon, which consisted nearly half of the population. In 1975, the Velasco government enacted a law making [[Quechua language|Quechua]] an official language of Peru equal to Spanish. However, this law was never enforced and ceased to be valid when the [[Constitution of Peru#1979 Constitution|1979 constitution]] became effective, according to which Quechua and [[Aymara language|Aymara]] are official only where they predominate, as mandated by law – a law that was never enacted.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Quechua Education in Peru. The Theory-Context Mergence Approach|last=Brisson|first=David|year=2009|pages=13–14|url=http://dspace.wrlc.org/bitstream/1961/7764/1/Brisson,%20David%202009S.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003223132/http://aladinrc.wrlc.org/bitstream/1961/7764/1/Brisson,%20David%202009S.pdf|archive-date=2011-10-03|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A cornerstone of Velasco's political and economic strategy was the implementation by dictate of an [[agrarian reform]] program to expropriate farms and diversify land ownership. In its first ten years in power, the Revolutionary Government expropriated 15,000 properties (totaling nine million hectares) and benefited some 300,000 families.<ref>Enrique Mayer, Ugly Stories of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.</ref> [[Peruvian Agrarian Reform|Peru's agrarian reform]] under Velasco was the second-largest [[Land reforms by country#Peru|Land reform in Latin American history]], after Cuba. The former landlords who opposed this program believed that they did not receive adequate compensation for their confiscated assets and lamented that the state officials and peasant beneficiaries mismanaged their properties after the expropriation.<ref>Enrique Mayer, Ugly Stories of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform. Durham:Duke University Press, 2009.</ref> The owners who opposed his program also claimed that the expropriation was more akin to confiscation, as they were paid in [[Agrarian bonds in Peru|agrarian reform bonds]], a [[Government bond|sovereign debt obligation]] of which the government defaulted payment due to the [[hyperinflation]]ary period that affected [[Economic history of Peru|Peru's economy]] in the late 1980s, leaving the current value of the bonds up for debate and resulting in a decade-long lawsuit against the Peruvian government.

The deposed Belaúnde administration had attempted to implement a milder agrarian reform program, but it was defeated in Congress by the APRA-UNO coalition with support of the major [[landowner]]s. Within this framework, the Velasco administration engaged in a program of [[import substitution industrialization]], imposing tight foreign exchange and trade controls. {{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

The success of the Velasco administration's economic policies is still debated today.<ref>Anna Cant, ''Representations of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform, 1968–1975''. Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2015. See Tony Wood, [http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/13696 "Peruvian Agrarian Reform, 1968–1975,"] ''Dissertation Reviews'', April 18, 2016.</ref> As the Peruvian military government ran deeper into debt, it was forced to devalue the currency and run inflationary policies. This however, was in part due to the [[1970s Energy Crisis|1970s energy crisis]], which also affected Peru and made it impossible for the Velasco administration to fund some of its most ambitious reforms. Economic growth under the administration was steady if unremarkable - real per capita GDP (constant 2000 US$) increased 3.2% per year from 1968 to 1975.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_kd&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:PER&idim=region:LCN&ifdim=region&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false|title=World Development Indicators, GDP per capita (constant 2000 US$) for Peru, Latin America & Caribbean region|publisher=World Bank|access-date=1 March 2019|via=Google}}</ref>

In 1971, Velasco described the economic policy as one aimed at overcoming capitalism in Peru, stating that

{{Blockquote|The various laws that create Labor Communities constitute, as a whole, the reform of the traditional capitalist company. Its frame of reference is, therefore, the existing production system in the country, that is, the totality of economic companies. In this field, the revolutionary reforms tend to substantially modify the traditional relations of property and production. At the same time that it considers promotional measures for the development of the economic companies as such, the revolutionary legislation guarantees the gradual but sure access of all the workers to the profits, the direction and the property of the companies. In this way we promote the economic development of the country and, at the same time, we reform the traditional capitalist company, according to the principles and postulates of the Revolution that the Armed Forces promised the country in its Manifesto of October 3, 1968. Without However, here have arisen, as in the case of the Agrarian Reform, the understandable difficulties of understanding inherent to all truly creative work. That is why it is also my responsibility, as head of the Revolutionary Government, to specify our position clearly in this regard. First of all, we have never hidden our intention to start building a non-capitalist society. Consequently, no one should be surprised that our economic policy is aimed at overcoming capitalism as a system in Peru and, therefore, at reforming the structure of Peruvian capitalist companies as profoundly as necessary.<ref>[https://www.congreso.gob.pe/participacion/museo/congreso/mensajes/mensaje_nacion_congreso_28_julio_1971 MENSAJE A LA NACIÓN DEL PRESIDENTE DEL PERÚ, GENERAL DE DIVISIÓN JUAN VELASCO ALVARADO, CON MOTIVO DEL SESQUICENTENARIO DE LA INDEPENDENCIA NACIONAL, EL 28 DE JULIO DE 1971, P.6]</ref>}}

In a 1975 speech Velasco described his revolution as one that rejected both capitalism and communism, stating that

{{Blockquote|there is marked confusionism in the public treatment of fundamental ideological problems. This confusion originates from the mistaken statements of those who do not understand what our Revolution really means. But all his adversaries take advantage of him. Central responsibility for all of this falls on some elements that have distorted and confused the true nature of the Revolution, both with regard to our position against capitalism and communism, as well as with regard to our relations with traditional political groups and parties who defend both systems. Both are important issues. And to them I must refer clearly. I reiterate once again that our Revolution seeks to build a social, economic and political order essentially different from the one proposed by the capitalist and communist models. Apart from this fundamental difference in purpose, there are decisive differences in political strategy, method and behavior with those who maintain the validity of these systems. In short, we have nothing essential in common, from the theoretical-ideological point of view, neither with capitalism nor with communism. Politically, this means that within the Peruvian Revolution we cannot adopt any attitude that directly or indirectly favors, in the present, or in the future, the maintenance or triumph of the systems that it challenges. In other words, by rejecting capitalism, we reject all possible pro-capitalisms. And by rejecting communism, we reject all possible pro-communisms.<ref>[https://www.congreso.gob.pe/Docs/participacion/museo/congreso/files/mensajes/1961-1980/files/mensaje-1975-1.pdf MENSAJE A LA NACIÓN DEL PRESIDENTE DEL PERÚ, GENERAL DE DIVISIÓN EP JUAN VELASCO ALVARADO, EL 28 DE JULIO DE 1975]</ref>}}

==Foreign and military policies==
[[File:Vizita președintelui Consiliului de Stat al R.S.R. și a Elenei Ceaușescu în Republica Peru. Cei doi președinți împreună cu soțiile.jpg|250px|thumb|right|General Velasco meeting with President [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] of Romania, in 1973.]]
In foreign policy, in contrast with his 1970s Latin American contemporaries, which were mostly right-wing military dictatorships, he pursued a partnership with the [[Soviet bloc]], tightening relations with [[Cuba]] and [[Fidel Castro]] and undertaking major purchases of Soviet military hardware.<ref>Walter, Richard J. Peru and the United States, 1960–1975: How Their Ambassadors Managed Foreign Relations in a Turbulent Era. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010.</ref><ref name="PERRUS">{{Cite book|title=Las Relaciones Entre el Perú y Rusia: Revisión e interpretación desde las Relaciones Internacionales|last1=Adins|first1=Sebastien|publisher=[[Konrad Adenauer Foundation|Konrad Adenauer Stiftung]]|year=2019|isbn=978-9972-671-59-3|pages=40|url=https://repositorio.pucp.edu.pe/index/bitstream/handle/123456789/166581/2019%20Per%C3%BA-Rusia.pdf?sequence=1|last2=Rooney|first2=Mildred}}</ref>

Relations between the [[United States]] and [[Peru]] were tense and even hostile, as soon as General Velasco and his junta took power. This was due to the government's socialist-leaning policies, but also because of a belief on the part of the Peruvian public that the U.S. generally favored other nations first, such as [[Chile]] in the context of their [[Treaty of Lima (1929)|territorial dispute]] (in spite of its support of Peru over the [[Tarata Department (Chile)|Tarata]] dispute), or [[Colombia]], in the context of the United States' mediation in favor of the [[Salomon-Lozano Treaty]] in order to compensate the country for its loss of [[Panama]].<ref name="PERRUS"/><ref name="tamayo">{{Cite book|title=Nuevo Compendio de Historia del Perú|last=Tamayo Herrera|first=José|author-link=José Tamayo Herrera|publisher=Editorial Lumen|year=1985|isbn=|pages=330}}</ref>

Just five days after Velasco seized power in 1968, the General began the nationalization of the Peruvian economy with the expropriation and nationalization of the American International Petroleum Company (IPC) oil fields located in the northern Peruvian oil port and refinery of [[Talara]], [[Piura]], near the Peruvian border with [[Ecuador]], [[Piura]] being the region where Velasco was born. The IPC expropriation was one of the first foreign policy crises for the new American administration of President Richard Nixon. [[John N. Irwin II]] was appointed special Ambassador to negotiate a solution and recommended against formal application of sanctions required by U.S. law. Eventually, the dispute was resolved in the context of a broader claims agreement so formulated as to permit Peru to maintain the position that it had not agreed to compensate IPC.<ref>Mark Feldman Oral History, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training p. 55 https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Feldman.Mark.pdf?swcfpc=1</ref>

US–Peru disagreements continued over a broad range of issues including even Peru's claim to a 200-mile fishing limit that resulted in the seizure of several US commercial fishing boats and the expropriation of the American copper mining company Cerro de Pasco Corporation. However, in spite of these provocations, the U.S. responded immediately with humanitarian aid in 1970, when [[1970 Ancash earthquake|an earthquake]] killed about 50,000 people and left over 600,000 homeless.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Terremoto de 1970: la solidaridad que levantó a un país|url=https://especiales.elcomercio.pe/?q=especiales/terremoto-de-yungay-ecpm/index.html|last=Batalla|first=Carlos|date=2014-12-04|work=[[El Comercio (Peru)|El Comercio]]}}</ref>

===Chile===
Another main goal of the Velasco administration, besides the nationalization of the main areas of the Peruvian economy and the agrarian reforms, was a military strengthening of Peru. Despite Chilean fears that Velasco planned on reconquering the lands lost by Peru to [[Chile]] in the [[War of the Pacific]], such claims have been since disputed.<ref name=PCOLSorpresa>[http://www.caretas.com.pe/2004/1826/articulos/chile.html "La veces que Pinochet casi Ataca al Perú de Sorpresa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202185713/http://www.caretas.com.pe/2004/1826/articulos/chile.html |date=December 2, 2008 }}. caretas.com. June 3, 2004.</ref> It is estimated that from 1970 to 1975 Peru spent up to US$2 billion (roughly US$25 billion in 2021 dollars) on Soviet armament.<ref name=utexas/> According to various sources Velasco's government bought between 600 and 1200 [[T-55]] Main Battle Tanks, [[Armoured personnel carrier|APCs]], 60 to 90 [[Sukhoi 22]] warplanes, 500,000 assault rifles, and even considered the purchase of the British {{sclass|Centaur|aircraft carrier|0}} [[aircraft carrier|light fleet carrier]] {{HMS|Bulwark|R08|6}}.<ref name=utexas>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/guides/guidecollectionsa-m.asp |title=Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. KISSINGER, HENRY |access-date=October 21, 2008 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924014600/http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/guides/guidecollectionsa-m.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The enormous amount of weaponry purchased by Peru caused a meeting between former US Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] and Chilean US-backed dictator General [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1976. In 1999, Pinochet claimed that if Peru had attacked Chile during 1973 or even 1978, Peruvian forces could have penetrated deep south into Chilean territory, possibly militarily taking the Chilean city of [[Copiapó]] located half way on the way to [[Santiago]].<ref name="PCOLSorpresa"/> The Chilean Armed Forces considered launching a [[preventive war]] to defend itself. However, Pinochet's Chilean Air Force General [[Fernando Matthei]] opposed a preventive war and responded that "I can guarantee that the Peruvians would destroy the Chilean Air Force in the first five minutes of the war".<ref name="PCOLSorpresa"/> Some analysts believe the fear of attack by Chilean and US officials as largely unjustified but logical for them to experience, considering the Pinochet dictatorship had come into power with a coup against democratically elected president [[Salvador Allende]]. According to sources, the alleged invasion scheme could be seen from the Chilean's military regime perspective as a plan for some kind of leftist counterattack.<ref>[http://www.caretas.com.pe/2004/1826/articulos/chile.html "La veces que Pinochet casi Ataca al Perú de Sorpresa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202185713/http://www.caretas.com.pe/2004/1826/articulos/chile.html |date=December 2, 2008 }}, ''Caretas'', June 3, 2004 {{in lang|es}}</ref> While acknowledging the Peruvian plans were revisionistic, scholar [[Kalevi J. Holsti]] claim more important issues behind were the "ideological incompatibility" between the regimes of Velasco Alvarado and Pinochet and that Peru would have been concerned about Pinochet's geopolitical views on Chile's need of naval [[hegemony]] in the Southeastern Pacific.<ref name=Holsti>{{cite book|author-link1=Kalevi Holsti |last=Holsti |first=Kalevi J.|date=1996 |title=The State, War and the State of War |publisher=Cambridge Studies in International Relations |page=158 }}</ref>
{{Quote|Chileans should stop with the bullshit or tomorrow I shall eat breakfast in Santiago.}}{{center|—Juan Velasco Alvarado<ref name="masterson-mil-228-229">{{cite book|title=Militarism and politics in Latin America: Peru from Sánchez Cerro to Sendero Luminoso|author=Masterson, Daniel M. |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1991|isbn=978-0-313-27213-4|pages=228–229|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYm4wmXl2M4C&pg=PA228}}</ref>}}

== Overthrow ==
Economic difficulties such as inflation, unemployment, food shortages and increased political opposition after the 1974 crackdown on the press ultimately increased pressures on the Velasco administration and led to its downfall. On August 29, 1975, a number of prominent military commanders initiated a coup in the southern city of [[Tacna]], nicknamed the ''[[Tacnazo]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|date=12 July 2016|title=12 de julio: ¿Qué pasó un día como hoy?|work=El Comercio|url=https://elcomercio.pe/politica/congreso/12-julio-paso-dia-hoy-232464-noticia/|access-date=13 September 2020}}</ref>

The military commanders of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th military regions declared that Velasco had not achieved most of what the "Peruvian Revolution" had stood for and was unable to continue in his functions. Prime Minister [[Francisco Morales Bermúdez]] was then appointed president, by unanimous decision of the new military junta.<ref>{{Cite book|title=El gobierno del general Juan Velasco Alvarado: Estudio de un caso histórico de Cesarismo|last=Marutián|first=Juan Ignacio|publisher=[[Universidad del Salvador]]|year=2003|location=Buenos Aires|language=Spanish|url=http://csoc.usal.edu.ar/archivos/csoc/docs/idicso-sdti017.pdf}}</ref>

Prior to being deposed, Velasco had been seriously ill for at least a year. He had lost a leg to an embolism, and his cognitive abilities and personality were rumoured to have been affected by related circulatory problems. At the time of the coup, he was convalescing in the presidential winter residence at [[Chaclacayo]], countryside 20 kilometers east of Lima. He immediately called for a meeting with his council of ministers, at Government Palace in downtown Lima, where he discovered that there was little or nothing to do. He made a last speech to the nation on the evening of August 29, 1975, announcing his decision not to resist the coup because "Peruvians cannot fight against each other".<ref name=sp/>

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Juan Velasco Alvarado (Tumba).jpg|thumb|right|Grave of General Velasco.]]
General Velasco kept a low profile in Peruvian politics until his death in 1977. His funeral was attended by a large amount of sympathizers to the point where the government had to release a communiqué requesting order during the event.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Manifestación popular en el sepelio de Velasco Alvarado|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1977/12/27/internacional/252025208_850215.html|date=1977-12-26|work=[[El País]]}}</ref>

Due to the international market moving away from Peruvian exports in the 1970s, efforts by Velasco to solidify industries of typical exports were fruitless and resulted with a debt burden.<ref name=":1" /> Furthermore, his government is partly responsible for the centralization of the country. After the agrarian reform, urbanization began occurring across the country, as people moved into Lima and other coastal cities. The Velasco government's failure to adequately manage the influx of people, as well as the indifference of subsequent governments to the issue, contributed to the creation of slums around Peru's cities.<ref>Cotler, Julio (1998). "De Velasco a Belaúnde: el problema de la construcción nacional y la democracia en Perú". En: ''El Estado en América Latina, teoría y práctica''. México: Siglo Veintiuno.</ref>

In 1974, a then relatively unknown [[Hugo Chávez]] and around one dozen fellow cadets and soldiers, all youths, traveled to [[Ayacucho]], [[Peru]] to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the [[Battle of Ayacucho|eponymous battle]]. There, they were personally greeted by General Velasco. Velasco gave each of them a miniature pocket edition of ''La Revolución Nacional Peruana'' ("The Peruvian National Revolution"). The cadets also noted Velasco's perceived close relationship with both the Peruvian masses and the rank and file of the Peruvian military. Chávez became attached to this book and would study its contents and constantly carry it on his person. However, Chávez later lost it after his arrest for leading the [[1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts|1992 Venezuelan coup attempt]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Twenty-five years later, as president, Chávez ordered the printing of millions of copies of his government's new [[Constitution of Venezuela|Bolivarian Constitution]] only in the form of miniature blue booklets, a partial tribute to Velasco's gift.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hugo Chávez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President |author1=Marcano, Christina |author2=Tyszka, Alberto Barrera |year=2007 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-45666-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/hugochvezthedefi0000marc/page/71 71–72] |url=https://archive.org/details/hugochvezthedefi0000marc/page/71 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Land reforms by country]]
* [[Plan Inca]]
* [[David Toro]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Cite book|title=A history of organized labor in Peru and Ecuador|author1=Robert Jackson Alexander|author2=Eldon M. Parker|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2007|isbn=978-0-275-97741-2| chapter=Chapter 3. Unionism under the Reformist Military Regime of General Velasco|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i3E61rK7dD4C&pg=PA91}}
* {{Cite book|title=Between reform & revolution: political struggles in the Peruvian Andes, 1969–1991|author=Linda J. Seligmann|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8047-2443-2|chapter=Chapter 2: The Agrarian Reform Project|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kxD7ee8lhsC&pg=PA56}}
* {{cite book|title=State Under Siege: Development and Policy Making in Peru|author=Philip Mauceri|publisher=Westview Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8133-3607-7|chapter=2. The Military and Popular Mobilization|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PARBuSNXBB0C&pg=PA15}}
* {{cite book|title=Household and class relations: peasants and landlords in northern Peru|author=[[Carmen Diana Deere]]|publisher=University of California Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-520-06675-5|chapter=9. The Agrarian Reform in Cajamarca: State Intervention, Capital, Land, and the Peasantry|url=https://archive.org/details/householdclassre0000deer|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/householdclassre0000deer/page/230 230]}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-mil}}
{{Succession box
| title = Commander-in-Chief of the Army
|years=September 1967 – October 1968 
|before=Gral. Julio Doig Sánchez 
| after = Gral. Ernesto Montagne Sánchez
}}
{{S-off}}
{{Succession box
|title=[[President of Peru|President of Peru (1st President of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces)]] of [[Peru]] 
|years=October 1968 – August 1975 
|before=[[Fernando Belaúnde Terry|Fernando Belaúnde]] 
| after = [[Francisco Morales Bermúdez]]
}}
{{S-end}}

{{Presidents of Peru}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Velasco Alvarado, Juan}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]
[[Category:Chorrillos Military School alumni]]
[[Category:Leaders ousted by a coup]]
[[Category:Leaders who took power by coup]]
[[Category:People from the Department of Piura]]
[[Category:Peruvian anti-communists]]
[[Category:Peruvian generals]]
[[Category:Peruvian nationalists]]
[[Category:Peruvian socialists]]
[[Category:Presidents of Peru]]
[[Category:Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru]]