Left Turn in Peru

Last week’s presidential elections in Peru showed clearly that the nation is looking to the political left to cure its severe economic and social problems. That poses a challenge for the Reagan Administration, with its dangerous distaste for leftist Latin American governments.

Among nine candidates to succeed outgoing President Fernando Belaunde Terry, the leading vote-getters were Alan Garcia, a young congressman from the APRA party, which is aligned with the Socialist International, and the Marxist mayor of Lima, Alfonso Barrantes, representing a coalition of political parties even further to the left.

Garcia, 35, fell just short of an absolute majority in last Sunday’s voting, with 48%. He will be favored in the June runoff against Barrantes, which should give some comfort to the White House--but not much. While not an outright Marxist like Barrantes, Garcia has many leftist advisers and has himself been a severe critic of the United States on occasion. In a press conference after his electoral triumph, Garcia lambasted Administration policies in Central America.

The APRA party has also been a source of fierce Latin American nationalism ever since it was founded in the 1930s by Raul Haya de la Torre, one of Peru’s most controversial political figures. De la Torre advocated populism and Marxism; Garcia boasts of his personal ties to the party’s founder.

The leftist tinge of Sunday’s voting in Peru was largely the result of voter frustration over economic troubles--rising inflation and high unemployment. Voters were also troubled by an increasingly bloody guerrilla insurgency in the Peruvian countryside, where terrorism by Maoist guerrillas of the Sendero Luminoso movement has become commonplace. Although the rebels, contained by the Peruvian army, could not seriously disrupt the voting, the violence seemed a somber warning to Peruvians that their nation could go the way of El Salvador if Peru’s troubles are not handled peaceably, and soon.

Belaunde has been blamed in Peru and elsewhere for the nation’s economic problems and the military’s excesses in combating Sendero Luminoso. That is basically unfair. Peru’s financial troubles are part and parcel of the falling commodity prices and rising interest rates that face all Latin America. And it is unlikely that any civilian leader could control Peru’s military in its aggressive determination to crush the guerrillas. As Belaunde leaves office, it is worth remembering that he was one of Latin America’s most outspoken proponents of democracy and economic development before that became acceptable. He is an honest and decent man whose failures were the result of forces beyond his control.

Many of those forces, especially the economic ones, can be influenced by the United States. The Reagan Administration must help Peru, despite fears and doubts that the White House has about Garcia and Barrantes. The current momentum toward democracy in Latin America must be maintained, and Peru is a good place to start.