I opened markets with President Bush – here I thank him deeply. My people told me the day that President Bush proposed working on a free trade agreement with Peru, my people told me, you’re wrong, [Mr.] President. How do you think Peru is going to have a free trade agreement? I insisted.
President Bush is the first sitting [American] president in the history of Peru who has made a state visit to Peru. And I proposed that we call the presidents of the Andean Community, and they came. We signed the free trade agreement with him. Today we sell them [the United States] grapes, asparagus. We have a market of 300 million people, the people of the United States. I opened trade with the European Union, with China. We sell grapes, mangoes, and asparagus to China in addition to minerals and fishmeal.
Latin America has made important economic advancements. We have learned how to put our house in order economically. This region was always a source of crisis, disorder, hyperinflation. During [Peruvian] President [Alan] García’s first administration, between ’85 and ’90, Peru produced 2.5 million [percent] hyperinflation that made the poor poorer and the rich richer.
We have learned a lesson. This and the high price of minerals on the international markets means that today, Peru has a bonanza of extraordinary prosperity. We aren’t the source of financial crises like we were 50 years ago. Forgive me, but the [global financial] crisis of 2008 and 2009 didn’t come from Latin America. It came from Lehman Brothers, from Wall Street, from Merrill Lynch, the JP Morgans and the Wall Streets of the world.
And we’ve had the ability to escape it. We’ve paid a price. But there’s a big possibility that we won’t be able to recover more quickly that the United States or Europe.
However, looking at the future, I want to be honest. The numbers in the macroeconomy, we’re in the blue. We’ve been growing for the past 10 years between 6 percent and 9 percent. The region has grown by 6 percent on average. But we’re in the red socially. We have reduced poverty but increased inequality. We’re in the blue economically. We’re in the red institutionally. We have very fragile institutions: the judicial power, the Congress. Democracy without strong, deeply rooted democratic institutions is very vulnerable to corruption, especially when we’re are plagued today throughout the continent, not just in Mexico, by narcotrafficking, which is big bucks. We’re in the blue economically. We’re in the red environmentally. We’re in the blue economically. We’re in the red in the need to create a Latin American society in each country that is more cohesive and based on our cultural diversity.
Friend, I’m the first [indigenous] president in South America, because Mexico was outside before, to be democratically elected president in 500 years. And clearly this face doesn’t fit the profile to be president. They told me I didn’t have the measure of a president. I hope they weren’t referring to my size. But no we broke ground. They didn’t accept me. The hypocritical voice of discrimination awoke. What will the government of “Cholo Toledo” be like? [“Cholo” can be a Spanish slur referring to someone who is native South American or racially mixed] Discrimination.
Today we haven’t just won elections. We haven’t just overthrown a government. We haven’t just managed well – I invite you to look at the numbers. But more importantly, in democracy, in liberty, in freedom of expression, with respect to human rights but more importantly, today poor children from the Sierra [term for Peru’s mountainous region] have the opportunity as well to be presidents of Peru. If Alejandro Toledo, coming where he comes from – I became president of Peru thanks to education. Today I tell my people, you can do it too. If I did it, you can do it. This is why I created a global foundation that deals with economic growth, with distribution, with social inclusion, but in democracy [meaning within a democratic system].
President Alejandro Toledo was the first person of Quechua decent to be elected president of Peru, serving from July 2001 to July 2006. Toledo grew up in a large, poverty-stricken family that struggled to support itself. As a young boy, Toledo saw the value of education and became involved in politics and journalism at the age of eleven.
In 2000, Toledo was a leading figure in the movement that toppled President Alberto Fujimori’s authoritarian regime. Following Fujimori’s controversial re-election, which was surrounded by fraud allegations, Toledo organized mass street protests that ultimately forced the President’s resignation. Toledo emerged victorious in Peru’s subsequent presidential election in April 2001.
As president, Toledo implemented policies to reduce poverty by investing in the country’s health and educational systems. As a result of sustained economic growth and deliberate social policies directed at assisting the poor, extreme poverty was reduced by 25 percent in five years.
Since leaving office, Toledo has continued to be a leading voice in international development. He recently founded the Lima-based Global Center for Development and Democracy; through this organization, Toledo works to promote sustainable democracies and economic self-sufficiency in the developing world.
The territory that is now Peru was the heart of the Inca Empire. In 1532, Spanish conquistadors conquered the Incas and established a colonial government. Peru obtained its independence from Spain in 1821.
For much of the 20th Century, Peru alternated between periods of democracy and military rule. Beginning in 1980, a Marxist terrorist group known as Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”) posed a persistent and severe challenge to the government. In 1990, Alberto Fujimori, a Japanese-Peruvian, was elected president. Once in office, Fujimori suspended the constitution and the legislature with the support of the Peruvian armed forces. The powers appropriated by Fujimori in this 1992 “auto-coup” enabled the government to largely eradicate the Sendero forces, but at great cost to Peruvian democracy and human rights.
In 2000, Fujimori ran for a third term, thanks to a questionable ruling by the electoral bodies in his favor. The elections were widely denounced as falsified, as Fujimori claimed a narrow victory over opposition candidate Alejandro Toledo. Embroiled in a corruption scandal and facing rising domestic and international opposition, Fujimori resigned and took up residence in Japan. He was later extradited back to Peru and convicted of a number of charges, including embezzlement and human rights violations.
New presidential elections were held in 2001 and won by Alejandro Toledo. Toledo was the first indigenous Peruvian to be elected as president and worked to restore democratic institutions and revive the economy. Since the restoration of democracy in 2001, Peru has held regular and democratic elections.