ABSTRACT
In the context of dependent development, Peru has a disappointing record on growth and poverty alleviation. Peru was the home of one of the Western Hemisphere's largest and most sophisticated indigenous civilizations and subsequently one of Spain's two viceroyalties, the Spanish conquest and colonial rule were especially traumatic. The hundred-odd years between Peru's independence and 1930 were turbulent. For the first twenty years after independence, military officers from different regional bases competed for power and fought over national boundaries. From 1930 to 1968, Peru's oligarchy and its free market economic model confronted serious challenges, in particular from a new political party, the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance. In 1968, reflecting Peruvians' perception that the last chance for reform by a democratic government had been lost, General Juan Velasco Alvarado led a military coup. Peru's democratic transition was coinciding with a return to democracy in much of the region and a rhetorical United States commitment to democracy and human rights.
