ABSTRACT
The military’s intervention into politics in 1968 is somewhat unique within both Latin American politics generally and Peruvian history in particular. The Peruvian military acted out of extreme nationalism and vigorously attacked the nefarious forms of political, economic, and even cultural neo-imperialism that were considered largely responsible for the country’s underdevelopment and international dependency. One of the important characteristics of the Peruvian military is that its officer corp has not been drawn from the upper classes. National Independence was one important objective of the Peruvian revolution, which was dedicated to breaking the country’s political, economic and military dependency on North America. The military rulers proceeded to predicate the success of revolutionary reforms on the expansion of the country’s integration into the international market. The oligarchy prior to the revolution was considered to have been the active agent of imperialism, and therefore bore primary responsibility for the dependency of Peruvian society.
