Fernando Belaunde Terry (7 October 1912-4 June 2002) was President of Peru from 28 July 1963 to 3 October 1968 (succeeding Nicolas Lindley Lopez and preceding Juan Velasco Alvarado) and from 28 July 1980 to 28 July 1985 (succeeding Francisco Morales Bermudez ad preceding Alan Garcia).
Biography[]
Fernando Belaunde Terry was born in Lima, Peru in 1912 to an aristocratic family of Spanish ancestry, the great-grandson of President Pedro Diez Canseco. From 1930 to 1935, he studied architecture in the United States, and he became a professional architect back in Peru. In 1944, he co-founded the National Democratic Front of Peru, and, in 1956, he led massive protests when he was not allowed to run for President, ultimately convincing the government to allow him to run. While he lost the election to Manuel Prado Ugarteche, he was seen as a rising political leader, and he capitalized upon the momentum that he had gained and founded the Accion Popular party in 1962. He patterned his party on the APRA party, copied its organizational structure, and supported the same ideals of Indianism, nationalism, developmentalism, and democracy, although he emphasized economic development over social reform. He served as President from 1963 to 1968 (rising to power after a military coup and a recount of the 1962 election results, which led to Victor Raul Haya de la Torre's defeat), transforming the party into one of the country's major political forces and becoming strong in the southern regions of Arequipa, Puno, and Cuzco and attracting many young professionals as well as some Indian peasants. His party was largely a personalist party which supported Belaunde himself, and, in October 1968, he was overthrown in a military coup. He returned as President from 1980 to 1985 after 12 years of military rule, and he backed Argentina during the Falklands War. His popularity eroded due to inflation, economic hardship, and the Shining Path insurgency, and he was defeated for re-election by Alan Garcia. He died in 2002.