Word: bela
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Ranging through the slums and into the hills, Belaúnde found himself attracting crowds in the thousands. "Following this winding road among the mountains," he cried, "I ask once more: Who made this road? And again, resounding in my ears like a triumphal march, I hear in these elegant words the history of all Peru's yesterdays, its present, the prophecy for its future: 'the people built...
Army General Manuel Odria, then in power, scoffed at the upstart architect and declared Belaúnde's candidacy illegal for lack of enough petition signatures. Belaúnde called a protest demonstration in downtown Lima, raised high a Peruvian flag, and shouting "Adelante!", led a mob of 1,000 toward the President's palace. Waiting police hurled tear gas. His eyes streaming, Belaúnde delivered an ultimatum: "I will wait half an hour. If by then I have not been inscribed, we will march." Odria grudgingly let him run. In the voting, Belaúnde lost...
...shout him down. One morning in 1957, he fought a clanging saber duel atop a Lima airport building with a Congressman who had called him a "demagogue and conscious liar" (both were slightly nicked). A year later, his wife left him for another man. and the scandal rocked Lima. Belaúnde won a legal separation, was awarded custody of their three children-and plunged on with his Ace ion Popular. He published a book pleading for the integration of the highland Indian in the national economy. "This," he wrote, "is the great battle that still has not been fought...
...government hauled him off to an island prison for defying a presidential ban on political rallies. His followers rioted in Lima; in one violent demonstration 20 were injured, 100 arrested. After three days on the island, Belaúnde decided to make a move. While guards were looking the other way during an exercise period, he raced down to the shore, tore off his shoes and plunged into the chill Pacific, crying dramatically: "I have chosen freedom!"-only to have a nearby yachtsman return him to prison. All through the next week, Acción Popular demonstrations continued, until...
Calling for Tanks. Campaigning against APRA's Haya de la Torre and ex-Dictator Odria in the 1962 elections, Belaúnde promised land reform based on expropriation of the big estates, "worker-controlled industrial cooperatives, easy loans, housing and food." He sought support from anyone he thought would give it, cheered Peru's ultranationalists with an attack on U.S.-owned oil companies, then turned around and wooed businessmen with talk of foreign investment. Opposition goons in Cuzco turned one rally into a rock fight, bloodying Belaunde's head. When the ballots were counted, Bela...