APRA's Big Chance

On a recent Sunday in Lima, a mob of swarthy, high-cheekboned workers crowded into the courtyard of an old two-story building called "The House of the People." In a carnival mood, the workers guffawed at puppet shows, consumed bowls of guinea-pig soup and bottles of rotgut pisco brandy sold at kiosks emblazoned with the initials of the political party hosting the blowout--APRA. By such homespun come-ons, Peru's American Revolutionary Popular Alliance was busily laying the groundwork last week for the 1962 presidential election--and what the movement thinks is its best opportunity to rule in 36 years of struggle.

APRA is one of the great oddities of Latin American politics. Though it has the oldest name of the mass-based parties, the oligarchy and the military have never allowed it to have even a taste of governing.

Smoking Pistols. APRA was founded in Mexico in 1924 by an angry, 29-year-old student exiled from Peru for instigating workers' riots: Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, who still remains as its leader. In the erratic early days, Haya borrowed as easily from right as from left, denounced "Yankee imperialism" while adopting a fascist-style, raised-arm salute. As both Haya and APRA matured, the party turned moderate, has since plugged for land reform and economic growth.

Permitted to return from exile in 1931, Haya stumped the country as the new party's presidential candidate, fired the peasants and workers into unprecedented rallies. The landowning aristocracy made sure the presidency went to an army colonel, who jailed Haya and issued a chilling order: "I want to see Aprista blood on every bayonet." Apristas answered with smoking pistols. At Haya's home town of Trujillo in July 1932, peasants killed 150 soldiers. The army retaliated by massacring 5,000 Apristas.

Living Underground. The next 13 years Haya spent in prison or underground. In 1945, then (and now) President Manuel Prado, a banker, legalized APRA, but under a new name. Out of hiding, Haya spoke before 175,000: "We aspire to create an authentic social justice, not one that comes from Moscow." Yet once again, when an APRA-hatmg newspaper editor was murdered, the aristocracy threw out the coalition regime that APRA had helped elect (but in which it did not have a commanding voice) and forced the party back underground. Haya spent five years as a refugee in the Colombian embassy before he was allowed to leave the country.

Four years ago the still-outlawed Apristas made another deal with Banker Prado, and one that looked as if it would stick. In return for election support, Prado legalized the party. In another display of fair-mindedness, Prado appointed the loudest critic of his inflationary policies, Newspaper Publisher Pedro Beltran, as his Premier. The two have since given Peru constitutional government and, through tightfisted austerity, have braked inflation.

Now Prado and Beltran appear willing to accord APRA its long-frustrated opportunity to win an election. Under the constitution Prado cannot succeed himself, and Beltran says of Apristas: "Today they are behaving like law-abiding citizens." More and more of Peru's big rich privately admit that, with 72% of its 10,500,000 people underfed. 55% illiterate and rural peasants land-needy, Peru is ripe for reform. As a result, Haya's argument--that his modified APRA is the best hope of carrying out reform and averting Castro-style chaos--is gaining ground.

Last week, as APRA organized its campaign, Haya was first choice as candidate. But if Haya's old enemies will not permit an Aprista in the presidential palace, APRA will settle on a compromise candidate at the head of an APRA-led united front. In Rome, where he lives in self-exile to avoid becoming a between-elections target in Peru, Haya, now 65, says: "I will return to Lima in February and put myself at the disposal of the party." He promises an anti-Communist platform combining foreign investment with constructive reform.

To succeed, Haya de la Torre will have to soothe the suspicions of Peru's military, while reassuring the Indians that their party is still reformist. Failure would boost the chances of APRA's chief challenger, young (48) Architect Fernando Belaunde Terry, the nationalist firebrand leader of the Popular Action Party who enjoyed Communist backing in 1956 and who, during recent village tours, drew big peasant turnouts.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.