Alan García (1949–2019)

Summary

One of Peru’s most influential and controversial politicians, Alan García was president of Peru on two occasions. During his first presidency (1985–1990), García governed as a populist social-democrat who implemented a wide-ranging series of state-driven reforms. He also attempted to address the issue of Peru’s foreign debt by challenging the International Monetary Fund with a payment formula that would tie debt payments to a country’s exports. His reforms that relied on demand-led economics soon ran into problems, and his presidency ended with a period of scarcity and hyperinflation. Persecuted by his successor, Alberto Fujimori, Alan García fled Peru and lived in exile for the next decades. He subsequently returned to politics and, against all odds, won the presidency a second time (2006–2011). He now took a conservative approach to governing, subscribed to neoliberalism, and encouraged free trade and foreign investment. He presided over a period of economic growth. In a third attempt at the presidency, he gained a minuscule portion of the vote, at which point he retired from politics. Plagued by accusations of corruption during his decades as a politician, he avoided prosecution until 2019, when the government attempted to arrest him for his alleged participation in a massive corruption scandal. Before his arrest, he took his own life by shooting himself in the head.