Peru: Nationwide protests and strikes - timeline
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Timeline
- April 2007. Amidst an ongoing dispute with coca farmers, the 120-seat Congress (the unicameral legislature) grants President Alan García Pérez the authority to rule by decree for 60 days on matters relating to drug trafficking, terrorism, and organised crime.
- March 2007. At least 10 people are injured during violent clashes with the police while protesting against the government's coca eradication policies.
- February 2007. A campaign to sell oil and gas concessions in large swathes of land in the Peruvian Amazon jungle to foreign energy companies is strongly condemned by human rights and environmental organisations.
- January 2007. The IMF declares that the main objectives of its standby arrangement with Peru are to consolidate “macroeconomic stability, to tackle high poverty levels, and to implement growth-enhancing reforms”.
- December 2006. The government declares a 30-day state of emergency in the city of Abancay, the capital of Abancay province, after 85 people are injured during violent clashes between the police and opponents of local governor Rosa Suarez Aliaga.
- November 2006. President Alan García Pérez announces 11 social programmes designed to fight against poverty, including plans to improve sanitation, electricity provision, education, infrastructure, and road construction.
- October 2006. President García makes his first official visit to the USA since he was sworn into office in July, meeting US President George W. Bush in Washington DC to discuss Peru's proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the USA.
- July 2006. García Pérez is inaugurated for his second presidential term.
- June 2006. García Pérez wins the second round of voting in presidential elections.
- April 2006. García Pérez wins sufficient votes in the first round of voting in presidential elections to force a second round run-off against Lt-Col (retd) Ollanta Humala Tasso, his closest rival.
- December 2005. After 18 months of negotiations, Peruvian and US officials announce that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries has been completed.
- September 2004. Around 70 coca growers, who were protesting against the government's US-backed policies to eradicate coca (the raw ingredient used in the illicit cocaine processing industry), surround a group of tourists for over an hour, trapping them in an ancient temple.
- July 2004.The largest labour federation, the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), calls a one-day general strike to protest against the government’s economic policies.
- May 2004. Coca growers march to Lima (the capital) in the first of a series of protests in May.
- August 2003. García Pérez is amongst three former presidents blamed for failing to control the excesses of the armed forces during Peru’s “dirty war” era of the 1980s and 1990s.
- June 2003. The government and trade union negotiators agree to pay increases, temporarily ending industrial disputes that had forced the government to declare a state of emergency.
- May 2003. President Alejandro Toledo declares a 30-day nationwide state of emergency in response to a wave of strikes and protests in support of a national teachers' strike.
- June 2002. A 30-day state of emergency is declared in the southern department of Arequipa after rioting breaks out in Arequipa city over the government’s ongoing privatisation programme.
- July 2001. Alejandro Toledo, the candidate of the centre left party Peru Possible, who secured a narrow victory in the second round of the presidential election held in June is inaugurated as President.
- June 2001. Toledo secures a narrow victory in the second round of voting in presidential elections, defeating García Pérez, his closest rival.
- January 2001. García Pérez, who had fled Peru in 1992 and had been convicted in absentia on charges of corruption in 1995, returns to the country and announces plans to contest presidential elections scheduled for April.
- June 1997. The public opinion of President Alberto Keinya Fujimori plummets in the face of nationwide protests against his government.
- April 1992. President Fujimori seizes power in an army-backed coup, suspending those sections of the constitution which recognise the authority of Congress and the judiciary.
- August 1991. Congress withdraws the immunity from prosecution of García Pérez, who held office in 1985-90, so that he could face trial for the “alleged charges of embezzlement, extortion, fraud and the breach of public faith”.
- June 1991. The Maoist Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla group launches well-orchestrated attacks, during which at least 60 people are killed and 15 private banks in Lima are damaged by bomb explosions.
- August 1990. A two-day strike is launched by 70,000 miners, coinciding with a general strike called by the two leading trade union confederations in protest at government austerity measures.
- July 1990. Fujimori is inaugurated as President.
- December 1989. Peru’s central bank confirms that US$42,300,000 in interest payments, to cover arrears for the period September to December, has been paid to the IMF.
- June 1988. García forms the National Counter-Insurgency Command to fight against Maoist guerrillas.
- March 1988. Rising inflation and a deteriorating economic situation, following economic expansion in 1986-87, prompt President García to implement an austerity programme, dubbed the “war economy”.
- January 1988. A 24-hour general strike is organised by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers in protest against the erosion of wage values.
- October 1987. García nationalises private banks and private financial and insurance institutions, whilst closing all private foreign exchange houses and banning street sales of foreign currencies.
- May 1987. A four-day strike by police officers, followed by a 24-hour nationwide general strike, highlights popular discontent with the government's economic policies.
- April 1987. García declares that a strike by some 8,000 employees of the state-owned oil company, Petroperu, is illegal because it is threatening national security.
- April 1986. Peru is affected by a series of strikes.
- August 1985. García imposes a state of emergency due to the “persistent subversive” actions of “ultra-leftist groups”, in particular the Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”).
- April 1985. García Pérez wins presidential elections.
- July 1980. Former civilian president Fernando Belaunde Terry is returned to the presidency following elections held in May, the first general elections since 1963.
- August 1975. Military President Juan Velasco Alvarado is overthrown in a bloodless military coup.
- October 1968. Civilian President Belaunde Terry is overthrown in a bloodless military coup.
- July 1963. Fernando Belaunde Terry is installed as president, ending the military junta regime and marking the country's return to constitutional government.
- February 1948. A military government seizes power in a coup.
- October 1931. Sanchez Cerro is elected president. In 1930 he led the revolution that caused the fall of President Leguia, but was subsequently expelled himself by a new insurrection.
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