Peru's APRA

Book excerpt: When Peru's APRA - one of the oldest and most controversial political parties in Latin America - came to power in 1985, expectations were high for the new government, and in part because a decade of economic decline and social crisis had discredited both the military and the right as alternatives. APRA did manage an unprecedented consensus for two years. But a sudden shift in strategy to confrontational rhetoric and authoritarian tactics led to policy stagnation, economic collapse, and a surge of reaction and political violence from extremes of the left and right. Rather than playing the role of the strong centre, APRA acted as a catalyst for the polarisation process. The party's sectarian and authoritarian strains, coupled with the increasingly erratic behaviour of its once-popular young leader, Alan Garcia, created damaging and perhaps irreparable divisions between the party and the rest of society, and between society and polity more generally.