Víctor Raul Halla de la Torre

 

Víctor Raul Halla de la Torre

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

 

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)

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)

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

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.

With affection,

Ruben