ABSTRACT
Peru is located on the western side of South America and has a long Pacific littoral. From 1930s, the major conflict was internal: between the new political party, the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA), and the army. As elsewhere in the continent, the army stood for the interests of the elites while the politicians represented the middle classes. Alberto Fujimori justified on the grounds that the economy was virtually bankrupt. Bankruptcy had been avoided only by the informal sector, perhaps as high as 40 per cent of the economy, and the illegal sector, based on cocaine. Apart from the economy, the other major problem from the 1960s had been the radical guerrilla movement Shining Path or Sendero Luminoso (SL). The movement thrives particularly on the major cleavage between core and periphery, typical of many Latin American states. Foreign policy has been dominated by the traditional suspicion of Chile, but more importantly by the boundary dispute with Ecuador.
