Víctor Raul Halla
de la Torre
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Source: Partido
Aprista PERUANO
Early
years
His house
Víctor
Raúl Haya de la Torre was born in Trujillo, on February 22, 1895; he was the
son of the also trujillanos Raúl Edmundo Haya and Cárdenas, and Zoila Victoria
de la Torre and Cárdenas, who were also cousins. His birth is commemorated as
Fraternity Day.
Haya
studied his primary and secondary school at the Colegio de San Carlos and San
Marcelo de Trujillo. He entered the Faculty of Letters of the National
University of Trujillo, where he became a good friend of the outstanding poet
César Vallejo in the literature course; both, together with other students and
under the leadership of Antenor Orrego and José Eulogio Garrido, they
integrated the so-called « trujillana bohemia », an intellectual group that was
later baptized as the North Group.
In 1915,
at the National University of Trujillo, he launched the first initiative of the
Popular University. Which begins operating at the La Libertad University Center.
Subsequently, he continued his studies at the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos
de Lima, where he continued his law degree. In 1917, he met the politician and
writer Manuel González Prada and became a regular visitor to his home,
developing political concerns derived from the radicalism of said intellectual.
In 1918, he was one of those who carried his coffin.
In 1918,
he proposed in the Peruvian Student
Federation the first project of the Popular University in Lima.
In
January 1919, he proposed in the Student Federation its participation in favour
of the textile workers who were fighting for the 8 o'clock day. Appointed
president of the university commission before the Peruvian Regional Federation,
he supports the campaign for the eight-hour day. The Minister Vinelli is
interviewed and with his determined cooperation the decree is obtained after
long days of the General Strike that had paralyzed the entire country.
Immediately after this victory, he summons the textile union leaders and in the
premises of the Student Federation (Palace of the Exhibition) the foundation of
the Federation of Textile Workers whose minutes initial subscribe. This episode
marked the beginning of Haya's active participation in Peruvian politics that
would last until the end of his days
In the
same year he was part of the Initiating Committee of the University Reform in
Lima. In October of that same year, he was elected president of the Peruvian
Student Federation. It was linked with all sectors of society. He participated
in the first National Student Congress, held in Cusco (March 1920), where the
project to create the “Popular Universities” was approved.
On
January 22, 1921 the first Popular University was founded in Vitarte, Haya de
la Torre was elected Rector. Later those of Trujillo, Arequipa, Salaverry,
Cuzco were founded, in 1922 they took shape with the name of “ González Prada
”.
He
launched numerous protests against the government of Augustus B. Leguía when
he, around 1923, began to devise his perpetuation in power (said regime would
later be known as the Oncenio). One of the most significant of these protests
was the campaign of opposition to the projected official consecration of the
country to the Heart of Jesus, promoted by the Archbishop of Lima Emilio Lisson
to legitimize the dictatorial regime. During the street protest, a student and
a worker died (May 23, 1923), which became a symbol of the worker-student unit.
At the grand funeral of the victims on May 23, on the 25th, Haya de la Torre
delivers a memorable speech in the Cemetery that begins with the phrase “The
fifth not to kill”. The archbishop finally suspended the consecration ceremony.
Later,
Haya edited the radical worker-student magazine Claridad, in collaboration with
José Carlos Mariátegui, as “ organ of the free youth of Peru ” and of the
popular universities. In October 1923, when he was a teacher at the
Anglo-Peruvian Lima school (today Colegio San Andrés), he was arrested and held
in the El Frontón prison, where he went on a hunger strike; six days after the
strike, he was shipped in the small steamer Denied and deported to Panama.
Banishment.
APRA Foundation
Cell of APRA exiles in Mexico, 1929. From left to
right: Pavletich, Carlos Manuel Cox, Magda Portal, Serafín Delmar, Haya de la
Torre, Enríquez and Vásquez Díaz.
In
Panama, Haya stayed two weeks, and then went to Cuba. From there he went to
Mexico, invited by José Vasconcelos, then Minister of Public Education, to
collaborate with him as his secretary. He arrived in Mexico City on November
16, 1923. He then made contact with the Mexican Revolution, appreciating the
socio-economic changes taking place in that country.
He
contacted Mexican students to encourage them to develop a student and labor
fraternity at the continental level. It was precisely in Mexico City where, on
May 7, 1924, he founded the American Revolutionary Popular Alliance. As can be
deduced from its name, Haya de la Torre's initial political option sought to
consolidate itself into a project for the entire so-called Indo-America.
In a
simple ceremony, he gave the students of Mexico the flag of Indo-America, when
he said: « This flag that I give you, it will fly first over the dreamy crowds
of youth that are opening the way, and later it will be the peoples who agitate
it in the trembling tumult of their struggles ». He presented his doctrinal
foundations two years later, in the manifesto entitled what is the APRA. (What
is APRA? ) Initially published in English in the magazine Labor Monthly in
London, in December 1926, and was later translated into Spanish and reproduced
in various publications in Latin America. In this document he exposes the five
basic points of the APRA doctrine:
Action
against Yankee imperialism;
For the
political unity of Latin America;
For the
nationalization of lands and industries;
For the
internationalization of the Panama Canal;
For
solidarity with all the oppressed peoples and classes of the world.
In
September 1924 he traveled to Russia, where he contacted the 1917 Russian
Revolution, which served as a source of inspiration for his ideology. He also
traveled through Switzerland, Italy and France. In 1925, he settled in England,
where, between 1926 and 1927, he studied Economics at the London School of
Economics and Political Science and then Anthropology at the University of
Oxford, in which years later he would be a teacher (in 1964).
He
devoted himself entirely to forming a great movement that could represent the
masses excluded from « America India ». The Alliance had its first “ section ”
in Paris (founded on January 22, 1927) and then committees were created in
Buenos Aires, Mexico City and La Paz. The Apra was born as an eminently
anti-oligarchic and anti-imperialist force. It was early linked to Marxism but
clearly disagreed with communism as it considered it a totalitarian political
system.
In 1927
he published his first book, entitled For the Emancipation of Latin America,
where he exposed the APRA doctrine. In May 1928 he finished writing his book
Anti-imperialism and APRA, a work that for economic reasons and would not become
known until 1935.
In
February 1927 he participated in the First Anti-imperialist Congress in
Brussels in which he raised the difference between APRA and communism. In
November of that year he left Europe and returned to America, passing through
New York before returning to Mexico. Then he undertook a tour of Guatemala, El
Salvador, Costa Rica and, again, Panama, being prevented from landing in the
Canal Zone, rather, he was banished again to Europe on December 16, 1928. He
spent some time in Berlin where he is appointed secretary of the Wirsschaft
Institut Latain Amerika. In Berlin he meets Einstein, Plank, Kautsky,
Stresseman, Curtins, and other personalities. In Berlin he meets with the cc.
Heysen, Apaza, Fuentes, Meneses. It also runs through other cities on the old
continent until June 1931. In the meantime,The Leguía government fell ( August
1930 ) and in Lima the Peruvian Aprista Party was founded, as “ Peruvian
section ” of APRA ( September 21, 1930 ).
Return
to Peru. Presidential candidate in 1931
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After
having lived in exile as a result of his fight against the Leguía Fire, Haya de
la Torre returned to Peru, having been nominated as a presidential candidate in
the 1931 general elections by the then young Peruvian Aprista Party. He first
arrived in Talara (July 12, 1931), was received in his hometown (July 25), and
finally entered Lima (August 15), where before an immense crowd gathered in the
Plaza de Acho, he exposed the minimum program of his party, in which he
emphasized the intervention of the State in the economy (August 23). The APRA
campaign introduced media never seen before in the elections in Peru: street
pints in all the cities of the country; candidates called by their names — »
Victor Raúl », « Luis Alberto », etcetera —;inclusion of non-voters — JAP (Aprista
Youth), CHAP (Aprista Boys) —; own hymn, which superimposed the lyrics on the
music of the French Marseillaise — the Marseillaise aprista —; a flag for the
party that identifies supporters; supporters called « comrades » raising white
scarves, and the famous « seasap » (« Only APRA will save Peru »). Haya was
called at the same time « Victor Raúl », « the boss », « the guide » and « the
teacher ».
According
to the Electoral Court that led this election, Víctor Raúl ranked second behind
Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro (Revolutionary Union); However, Haya de la Torre and
APRA never recognized the official results or the new government.aestro».
The
Encyclopedia Britannica in the bibliographic note on Haya de la Torre, -Letter
H- says: “ the public consensus recognizes that it was defeated by non-lawful
methods ”.
While the
Haya de la Torre polls are taking place, he establishes the school of aprista
leaders and teaches daily. On December 8, the day the fraud is consummated, he
delivers his famous speech called “ the prophetic ” that begins: “ This is not
a sad day for the Party ”.
The
Aprista Revolution of Trujillo (1932)
.jpg)
Sánchez
Cerro's government was authoritarian and repressive. Haya de la Torre was arrested in Miraflores. Popular
protests increased across the country. In the city of Trujillo there was a
failed APRA armed uprising that triggered clashes between the APRA people and
the armed forces. The insurrection was harshly suppressed, hundreds of apristas
were arrested, and an undetermined number were shot in the Peruvian ruins of
Chan Chan (on the outskirts of Trujillo). The so-called « Trujillo revolution
», as the Apristas know it, was parallel and part of other revolutionary
movements in various parts of the country (such as in Huaraz, Huari,
Cajabamba).
The 1933
Constitution outlawed every international party. Based on this and invoking
that the nation was in danger, the government declared the Aprista Party
illegal in 1932. However, the President was killed with several shots at
point-blank range on April 30, 1933 on the Lima Champ de Mars. The author of
the assassination was an APRA militant named Alejandro Mendoza Leyva, who was
victimized on the spot, although the APRA leadership could not be syndicated as
the intellectual author of the crime, for lack of evidence.
The
great clandestinely (1933-1945)
Víctor
Raúl Haya de la Torre and Luis Heysen, one day after the release of the first.
August 11, 1933.
After
Sánchez Cerro's death, General Óscar R assumed power. Benavides, who wanted to
rehearse a “ peace and harmony ” policy. Haya was released on August 10, 1933,
the other Aprista prisoners also left the jails and many others returned from
exile. But this opening would not last long. Following the APRA conspiracy of El
Agustino, in November 1934, the government restarted anti-aprista persecution.
Thus began, for Haya and his supporters, the stage of “ the great clandestinity
”, which would only officially end in 1945 (to increase again between 1948 and
1956, under the Ochenio by Manuel Odría).
In the
1936 elections, the then clandestine APRA supported Luis Antonio Eguiguren who
was elected; However, Congress invalidated the election, arguing that the votes
in favor of Eguiguren came from militants of an outlawed party, an unheard of
argument, even more considering that the vote was secret.
The
National Democratic Front ( 1945-1948 )
to
legality by participating in the coalition of the National Democratic Front
(FDN). Haya de la Torre and Marshal Óscar R. Benavides agreed to launch the
Arequipa jurist José Luis Bustamante y Rivero as a presidential candidate for
the FDN. On May 20, 1945, Haya reappeared in public, after ten years of being
underground, on which occasion he gave his “Reunion Speech” before a massive
gathering of his supporters in Plaza San Martín. The general elections were
held on June 10 and the FDN triumphed, thus resulting in Bustamante y Rivero
being elected as Constitutional President of the Republic. Thanks to their
electoral victory, Haya and APRA controlled the Front and the Legislative bench
as a whole; From there, they managed to approve various measures in favor of
the Peruvian people, in addition to demanding greater speed for the reforms
that Bustamante was trying to stop. They exerted vigorous pressure to achieve
their objectives, provoking a reaction from the right, which led to a stage of
misgovernment and anarchy that put the regime in check. Given this, the
non-APRA ruling party absented the Legislature, causing it to recess. Uprisings
occurred throughout the country, including the APRA held in Callao. Bustamante
was forced to govern by decree laws and to ban APRA again while the oligarchy
knocked on the door of the barracks. Finally, all this led to the coup of
Manuel A. Odría, dictated by economic power. Then, once again, anti-APRA
repression ensued.
Asylum
at the Colombian Embassy (1949-1954)
Haya de
la Torre was persecuted and Bustamante was deported. Haya took refuge in the
Colombian embassy in Lima where he spent sixty-three months asylum since the
Odriista dictatorship refused to grant the safe-conduct to leave the country,
situation that became an important reference case in International Law.
In 1954,
Haya was authorized to leave Peru thanks to international pressure – he was
friends with various characters, such as Albert Einstein –, and published an
article in Life magazine where he began to outline « democratic anti-imperialism
without empire ».
Coexistence
(1956-1962)
.jpg)
Only in
1956, the three main presidential candidates ensured a return to the legality
of the APRA party; by virtue of this offer, Haya de la Torre initially
supported Hernando de Lavalle and later Manuel Prado and Ugarteche, because it
was the only one that guaranteed the return to legality of the Aprista Party
and the freedom of its militants. Thanks to this support, he was successful. It
was when the country lived through a government of coexistence, which supported
the second pro-government government. It was, therefore, « a regime to which
the Peruvian Aprista Party » has supported with proven loyalty and decision.
With this, Haya hoped to overcome the veto woven over his person and his party
in the hope of coming to power through legal channels and already in exercise
of this, making the appropriate reforms.
Presidential
candidate in 1962 and 1963
In the
1962 general election, he ran for the second time as a presidential candidate,
this time for the « Democratic Alliance », that grouped the Aprista Party — the
old left party — with the Pradista Democratic Movement — that represented the
largest sectors of economic power —. Haya obtained 558,237 votes compared to
534,824 by Fernando Belaúnde Terry (Popular Action) and 48,404 by ex-president
Manuel Odría (National Odriist Union). Since he did not obtain the necessary
percentage to be proclaimed president, the election was to be decided by
Congress to settle on July 28, as established by the 1933 Constitution.
Apparently, the Peruvian Armed Forces feared that Haya would come to power and
went to the Palace to report his disappointment; informed of this by President
Prado,Haya would have tried to make an alliance with Fernando Belaúnde but they
came to a standstill, with which he could only consolidate one with Manuel A. I
would hear why I would yield the Aprista vows to Odrism. The Armed Forces
denounced fraud in ten departments and also spoke out against the virtual
president Odría (and not against Haya, according to the position of the
historian Percy Cayo Córdoba). Finally, on July 18, the first institutional
coup of the Armed Forces took place, led by General Ricardo Pérez Godoy, who
overthrew the government of Manuel Prado and Ugarteche, declares elections void
and installs a military government junta. The coup was backed by Acción
Popular. Already in the 1963 general elections, Fernando Belaúnde Terry won
with 39% compared to 34% in Haya.
President
of the Constituent Assembly (1978-1979)
President of the
Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Peru
July 28, 1978-August 2, 1979
After the
arrival of the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado, the political
parties – including APRA – are banned and their popular bases persecuted.
However, in 1970, on Fraternity Day, he demanded the intellectual paternity of
the reforms carried out by the military, protesting that they did not recognize
the intellectual debt they had: « We must be dissatisfied because it is not a
way, quickly and furtively, to carry these ideas forward and hide them,
especially hiding their origin and origin ».
Haya de
la Torre spearheaded popular pressure against the Francisco Morales Bermúdez
government for the military to return to their barracks and to restore
democracy. A Constituent Assembly had been announced on July 28, 1976 but the
elections were only held in 1978. The Aprista Party had the first majority,
followed by the Christian People's Party. Haya de la Torre was elected with the
highest vote as constituent deputy and was unanimously appointed to preside
over the Constituent Assembly. In a symbolic act, his salary for the exercise
of office was only 1 golden sun. On the same day of the installation of the
assembly, Haya de la Torre marked its clear independence from the military
regime:
« This
Assembly embodies the Constituent Power and the Constituent Power is the
supreme expression of the people as such, and the first Power of the State.
This Power does not admit conditioning, limitations or parameters; it does not
recognize powers above itself because it is the undisputed and legitimate fruit
of popular sovereignty. On a day like today, 157 years ago, Peru declared its
independence based on the general will of the peoples; on July 28, 1978, Based
on that same general will of the peoples clearly expressed in the June
elections, with no other limitations than those that she herself wants to give
herself, she proclaims herself free and autonomous.(...) It is obvious that the
search for harmonies and coincidences that offer the constitutional text a
broad consensus does not in any way mean the abandonment of ideological
positions or ideas or programs; moreover, a constituent is a natural arena for
confronting positions, a political approach of various ways; a constituent does
not legislate for a party or for a sector, but for all the people. (...) if the
defective Constitution of 1933, with an obsolete style and spirit, is the last
constitution of the 20th century; what is dictated now should be the first
constitution of the 21st century ».but for all the people. (...) if the
defective Constitution of 1933, with an obsolete style and spirit, is the last
constitution of the 20th century; what is dictated now should be the first
constitution of the 21st century ».but for all the people. (...) if the
defective Constitution of 1933, with an obsolete style and spirit, is the last
constitution of the 20th century; what is dictated now should be the first
constitution of the 21st century ».
Haya –
July 28, 1978
On July
12, 1979, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre signed the 1979 Constitution shortly
before his death.
Death
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Víctor
Raúl Haya de la Torre died on August 2, 1979 in the city of Lima. On his
deathbed he was decorated with the Order El Sol of Peru, in the degree of Grand
Cross. At his funerals, several party leaders were present, including Luis
Alberto Sánchez Sánchez, Ramiro Prialé, Andrés Townsend, Javier Valle Riestra
and Armando Villanueva, as well as a huge crowd, who accompanied the transfer
of his remains from Lima to his hometown. He was buried in the Miraflores
General Cemetery in the city of Trujillo. His coffin rests under a large rock
with the phrase « Here lies the light ».
Monument to Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre in Plaza
Perú, city of Buenos Aires.
Haya de
la Torre left a great legacy in the history of Peruvian politics. His thoughts
that led to the founding of the Aprista Party maintain an unusual validity,
with APRA being the oldest living party in Peru. And his ideas significantly
influenced historical social democratic parties in other Latin American nations
such as Acción Democrática de Venezuela, Liberación Nacional de Costa Rica,
among others.
Some of
his phrases have remained in popular culture:
«Neither
with Washington nor with Moscow, will only Aprismo save Peru!»
« Bread
with Freedom! »
« Young,
get ready for action and not for pleasure. »
« He who
knows little learns, he who knows much teaches. »
« Sing
and make sing, that the singing is of free and optimistic men. »
« Faith,
Union, Discipline and Action. »
Every
February 22, members of the Aprista Party meet, celebrate and commemorate the
day of the birth of the Indo-American leader, which is also Fraternity Day. The
flag of the United States of Indo-America that he created has served as
inspiration for the flag of the Union of South American Nations.
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With
affection,
Ruben
