REPUBLIC OF PERU

• Official name: Republica del Peru (Republic of Peru)
• Location: South America
• International organisations: Andean Community, Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum, Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation of American States, United Nations, World Trade Organisation
• Borders: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador
• Coastline: South Pacific Ocean
• Land area: 1,285,220 Km2
• Population: 29,100,000
• Annual GDP (PPP) per capita: US$8,600 (2009 CIA estimate). World ranking: 91
• Ethnicity: A large majority of Peru's people are either entirely (45%) or partly (37%) of Amerindian descent. About 15% are of wholly European (mainly Spanish) descent. There is a substantial Japanese immigrant community.
• Languages: Spanish is the official language and is generally understood, but a large minority still use Quechua and other indigenous languages.
• Religion: Virtually the entire population are at least nominally Catholic Christians.
• Form of government: Presidential democratic republic. Peru is divided into 25 provinces.
• Capital: Lima
• Constitution: The current Constitution of Peru came into effect on 31 December 1993.
• Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term.
• Head of government: The President, who appoints the members of the Cabinet.
• Legislature: Peru has a unicameral legislature. The Congress of the Republic (Congreso de la Republica) has 120 members, elected for five-year terms by proportional representation from each province.
• Electoral authority: The National Office of Electoral Processes administers national elections.
• Freedom House 2011 rating: Political Rights 2, Civil Liberties 3
• Transparency International Corruption Index: 35% (78 of 178 countries rated)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom 2010 Index: 70% (109 of 178 countries rated)
• Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom 2010 Index: 68.6% (41 of 179 countries rated)

Political history

The Empire of the Incas was conquered by the Spanish in 1532. The area was annexed as the Viceroyalty of Peru, which until the 18th century included most of Spanish South America. In 1821 the leaders of the white landowning class, led by Jose de San Martin, declared Peru independent. The new republic was weak and unstable, and was ruled by a succession of military despots for most of the 19th century. In the late 19th century, railway construction and mining in the highlands brought extensive development to Peru, but also increasing conflict between the white landowning upper class and the mass of Amerindian peasants and their liberal allies. Presidential elections were regularly held, but there was a succession of coups, civil wars and border wars with neighbouring countries.

In the early 20th century, the liberal president Augusto Leguia y Salcedo broke the power of the old oligarchy and carried out many reforms. But Peru's progressive era ended with the Depression and a coup in 1932. Coups and social conflict continued through the 1940s and 50s. Another liberal president, Fernando Belaunde Terry, was elected in 1963, and introduced some reforms. But Belaunde was deposed by the army in 1968, and a radical junta led by General Velasco Alvarado initiated a far-reaching program of agrarian reform and nationalisation.

Velasco's radical regime ended in another coup in 1975, and in 1980 democratic government was restored and Belaunde re-elected President. He was succeeded by a radical populist, Alan Garcia Perez, who almost bankrupted the country, and then by an authoritarian conservative, Alberto Fujimori, who dissolved Congress and ruled by decree before being forced to resign in 2000. Peru's communist insurgency was broken by Fujimori's tough measures, though its remnants continue to engage in drug trafficking and violence in remote areas.

Peru's democratic institutions survived these dramas and the election of Alejandro Toledo, a President of Amerindian descent, seemed to mark the beginning of a new progressive era. The 2006 election saw a contest between a chastened Garcia and a radical leftist, Ollanta Humala, which Garcia won. The 2011 election saw a contest between a more moderate Humala and Fujimori's daughter Keiko, with Humala winning a very narrow victory.

Like most Latin American countries Peru has a weak party system. The traditional party of the radical left, the American Revolutionary People's Alliance, was weakened by the debacle of the first Garcia presidency. Humala's Peruvian Nationalist Party (PNP) now represents the rural indigenous poor. The Union for Peru is the main liberal party.

Freedom House's 2011 report on Peru says: "Peru is an electoral democracy. Elections in 2006 were generally free and fair, according to international observers. Complaints focused on poor logistics and information distribution in rural areas, as well as the disenfranchisement of the roughly one million Peruvians who lacked identification documents... Corruption is a serious problem. Checks on campaign financing are weak, particularly at the local level, where drug traffickers’ influence is perceived to have grown in recent years. Public officials and judges are often dismissed or investigated for graft, and Congress is considered the most corrupt institution... The lively press is for the most part privately owned. Officials and private actors sometimes intimidate or even attack journalists in response to negative coverage... The constitution provides for the right to peaceful assembly, and the authorities uphold this right for the most part... The judiciary is widely distrusted and prone to corruption scandals. While the Constitutional Court is relatively independent, its autonomy has undergone a mix of setbacks and advances in recent years, and it has produced inconsistent jurisprudence on important issues... Discrimination against the indigenous population remains pervasive.

Updated November 2011