Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana

Infobox_Political_Party
party_name = Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana
"Peruvian Aprista Party"
colorcode = #FF0000
party_
leader = Alan García
chairman = Mauricio Mulder
spokesperson = Mercedes Cabanillas
foundation = May 7, 1924
ideology = Liberal, Social Democratic
headquarters = Av. Alfonso Ugarte N° 1012 - Lima, Perú
members =
international = Socialist International
website = [http://www.apra.org.pe http://www.apra.org.pe]

The Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana is a left wing Peruvian political party.

At the legislative elections held on 9 April 2006, the party won 22.6% of the popular vote and 36 out of 120 seats in the Congress of the Republic. Its presidential candidate at the elections of the same day, Alan García, won 22.6% of the vote and went on to win the second round on 4 June 2006 with 52.6%.

History

APRA was originally founded by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre in Mexico City on 7 May 1924 with aspirations to becoming a continent-wide party, and it subsequently influenced a number of other Latin American political movements, including Bolivia's Revolutionary Nationalist Movement ("Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario", MNR) and Costa Rica's National Liberation Party ("Partido Liberación Nacional", PLN).

It is the oldest surviving political party in Peru and one of the most well-established. APRA is as much a social phenomenon as a political movement, with a membership whose loyalty to the party has been unwavering for several generations.

APRA initially espoused anti-imperalism, pan-Americanism, international solidarity and economic nationalism. Years of repression and clandestinity, as well as Haya de la Torre's single-handed dominance of the party, resulted in striking sectarian and hierarchical traits. The party's structure and its hold over its rank and file proved more lasting than its original program.

Opportunistic ideological swings to the right by Haya de la Torre in the 1950s, in exchange for attaining legal status for the party, resulted in an exodus of some of APRA's most talented young leaders to the Marxist left.

Political activity since 1980

After several years of military rule, APRA was allowed to participate as a legal political party in 1979. As a result, the party gathered strong support from the electorate, managing to win a majority of seats in the newly created Constitutional Assembly, and supervised the first democratic elections in 12 years.

Haya de la Torre was elected president of the Constituent Assembly and was slated to run as the party's presidential candidate in 1980. However, he died before the election. The party was divided between Armando Villanueva and Andres Townsend, each one of them claiming to be the political and ideological heirs of Haya de la Torre. APRA chose Villanueva as its candidate, while Townsend and other members left the party to create the Movimiento de Bases Hayistas. The split among the Apristas allowed former president Fernando Belaúnde Terry of Acción Popular to win the election.

However, APRA managed to win in virtual control of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. It was also during these election that Alan García started his political career, after being elected Deputy for the Province of Lima.

The youthful and charismatic García was elected president on April 14, 1985 with 45% of the vote during the first round. Since he did not receive the 50% of the vote required to win the presidency, García was required to enter the second round against Alfonso Barrantes Lingán (the leftist mayor of Lima) of the Izquierda Unida Coalition. Barrantes, however, decided not to enter the second round of the elections, saying he did not want to prolong the political uncertainty of the country.

García was thus declared president on June 1 and officially took power on July 28, 1985. It was the first time in its sixty-year history that the populist APRA party had come to power in Peru.

His presidency was marked by hyperinflation with the annual rate exceeding 7,500 percent by the end of the period.

In May 1989, APRA chose as its standard bearer Luis Alva Castro, a long-time rival to García.Despite APRA's less-than-successful time in power, it managed to obtain 19.6 percent of the vote in the first round of the 1990 elections, more than any of the other parties.

For the final runoff, it is thought that APRA may have cut a deal with "Cambio 90", the party of dark-horse candidate Alberto Fujimori, to prevent the leading candidate Mario Vargas Llosa from getting elected. In any case, Fujimori was subsequently elected.

At the 2001 legislative elections, the party won 19.7 % of the popular vote and 26 out of 120 seats in Congress. Its presidential candidate at the elections of the same day, Alan García Pérez, won 25.8 % of the vote and was defeated in the second round by Alejandro Toledo.

In February 2005, García officially commenced his campaign for the 2006 presidential election. He came in second place by a slim margin over Lourdes Flores, and faced Ollanta Humala in a run-off election on June 4. He became president again as Humala conceded after exit polls and partial vote counts showed García leading. [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/49A76531-B028-4524-A697-9270F81738A8.htm] . He officially took power on July 28, 2006.

APRA is a member of the Socialist International.The youth organization of APRA is known as Juventud Aprista Peruana.

Presidential candidates of APRA

* 1931 - Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
* 1962 - Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
* 1963 - Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
* 1980 - Armando Villanueva (Note: Andrés Townsend, also a prominent member of the Party, participated on this elections under the Hayist Bases Movement)
* 1985 - Alan García
* 1990 - Luis Alva Castro
* 1995 - Mercedes Cabanillas
* 2000 - Abel Salinas
* 2001 - Alan García
* 2006 - Alan García

Presidents elected under APRA

* 1985 - Alan García
* 2006 - Alan García

APRA Congressmen for the period Jul-2005 to Jul-2011

Elias Nicolas Rodriguez Zavaleta (Representing La Libertad Region).

Benitez Vasquez Tula (Representing La Libertad Region).

External links

* [http://www.apra.org.pe APRA's official website] (in Spanish)
* [http://www.la-tribuna.org APRA's official publication] (in Spanish)