ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the military government’s agrarian reform proved a major economic and political benefit to a significant sector of the peasantry. The peasant beneficiaries seem much less likely to undermine the Belaunde government than in the 1960s; they have more to lose economically, and they have been woven into the tapestry of power in Peru. The peasants were perhaps more ideologically skeptical of “revolution” in 1980 than in 1968, many were yet ready to try again to secure plots for their families through land invasions or a vote for the left. As of early 1981, the programs of the Belaunde government seemed unlikely to resolve the urgent agricultural problems. Well intentioned agricultural policies, such as the new price policy of the Belaunde government, are often frustrated in implementation by the remoteness of many communities and other factors. The government’s emphasis on private agricultural enterprise seemed a hasty u-turn, likely to create confusion in the countryside.
