Peruvian Law & Government
Government & Politics
Peru is a presidential representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. Under the current constitution, the President is the head of state and government; he or she is elected for five years and may not immediately be re-elected. The President designates the Prime Minister and, with his advice, the rest of the Council of Ministers.[29] There is a unicameral Congress with 120 members elected for a five-year term. Bills may be proposed by either the executive or the legislative branch; they become law after being passed by Congress and promulgated by the President. The judiciary is nominally independent, though political intervention into judicial matters has been common throughout history and arguably continues today.
Congress sits on the Palacio Legislativo in Lima.The Peruvian government is directly elected, and voting is compulsory for all citizens aged 18 to 70. General elections held in 2006 ended in a second round victory for presidential candidate Alan García of the Peruvian Aprista Party (52.6% of valid votes) over Ollanta Humala of Union for Peru (47.4%). Congress is currently composed of Union for Peru (45 seats), the Peruvian Aprista Party (35 seats), National Unity (17 seats), Alliance for the Future (13 seats), the Center Front (5 seats), Peru Possible (2 seats), and National Restoration (2 seats).
Peruvian foreign relations have been dominated by border conflicts with neighboring countries, most of which were settled during the 20th century. There is still an ongoing dispute with Chile over maritime limits in the Pacific Ocean. Peru is an active member of several regional blocs and one of the founders of the Andean Community of Nations. It is also a participant in international organizations such as the Organization of American States and the United Nations, where it is an elected member of the Security Council for the 2006–2007 term. The Peruvian military is composed of an army, a navy and an air force; its primary mission is to safeguard the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. The armed forces are subordinate to the Ministry of Defense and to the President as Commander-in-Chief. Conscription was abolished in 1999 and replaced by voluntary military service.
Foreign Relations
In October 1998, Peru and Ecuador signed a peace accord which definitively resolved border differences which had, over the years, resulted in armed conflict. Peru and Ecuador are now jointly coordinating an internationally sponsored border integration project. The United States Government, as one of four guarantor states, was actively involved in facilitating the 1998 peace accord between Peru and Ecuador and remains committed to its implementation. The United States has pledged $40 million to the Peru-Ecuador border integration project and another $4 million to support Peruvian and Ecuadorian demining efforts along their common border.
In November 1999, Peru and Chile signed three agreements which put to rest the remaining obstacles holding up implementation of the 1929 Border Treaty, which officially ended the 1879 War of the Pacific. In December 1999, President Alberto Fujimori made the first visit ever to Chile by a Peruvian head of state.
Peru has been a member of the United Nations since 1949, and Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar served as UN Secretary General from 1981 to 1991. Former President Fujimori’s tainted re-election to a third term in June 2000 strained Peru's relations with the United States and with many Latin American and European countries, but relations improved with the installation of an interim government in November 2000 and the inauguration of Alejandro Toledo in July 2001 after free and fair elections. Peru is planning full integration into the Andean Free Trade Area. In addition, Peru is a standing member of APEC and the World Trade Organization, and is an active participant in negotiations toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Until recently the world's largest coca leaf producer, Peru has reduced the area of coca under cultivation by 24% to 387 km² at the end of 1999; most of cocaine base is shipped to neighboring Colombia, Bolivia, and Brazil for processing into cocaine for the international drug market, but exports of finished cocaine are increasing by maritime conveyance to Mexico, US, and Europe.
Law
The Constitution of Peru is the supreme law of Peru. The current constitution, enacted on December 31, 1993, is Peru's fifth in the 20th century and replaced the 1979 Constitution. The Constitution was drafted by the Democratic Constitutional Congress that was convened by President Alberto Fujimori during the Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992 that followed his 1992 dissolution of Congress, was promulgated on December 29, 1993.
The current Constitution of Peru differs from the 1979 Constitution in that it gives greater power to the president. For example, it allowed for reelection, reduced the bicameral 240-member congress to a unicameral 120 Congress of the Republic, not only affirmed the president's power to veto found in the 1979 Constitution, but also gave him the power to use a line item veto, and mandated that all tax laws receive prior approval by the Ministry of Economics and Finance. While the Constitution of 1979 allowed the president to dissolve congress after congress censured cabinent members three times, the current constitution allows the president to do so after only two censures. The Constitution allows the president to decree laws as long as he first informs the Congress of his intent to do so. If the president dissolves congress, the Constitution gives him the power to simply rule by decree.
