Cambio 90 (lit. Change 90, C90) was a Peruvian right-wing political party which entered the political spectrum in early 1990, and throughout the 1990s until late-2000 was the most powerful political party in Peru alongside New Majority, serving more as an instrumental electoral vehicle for Alberto Fujimori.[1]

Change 90
Cambio 90
AbbreviationC90
PresidentAndrés Reggiardo
SecretaryRenzo Reggiardo
Founder
Founded5 October 1989 (1989-10-05)
Dissolved26 September 2013 (2013-09-26)
Succeeded byPeru Secure Homeland
IdeologyFujimorism
Political positionRight-wing
National affiliation
Party flag

History

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Cambio 90's success hinged largely on the success of its candidate for the presidency, Alberto Fujimori, an agricultural engineer and rector of the Universidad Nacional Agraria (National Agrarian University) in Lima's La Molina District from 1984 to 1989. Fujimori's appeal to a large extent was his standing as a political outsider.

At the same time, Cambio's success was also attributed largely to its eclectic political base and its active grassroots campaign. Its two main bases of support were the Asociación Peruana de Empresas Medias y Pequeñas (APEMIPE), an association of SMEs, and the informal sector workers who associated their cause with APEMIPE, and the Evangelical movement. Less than four percent of the Peruvian population was Protestant, but the evangelicals were extremely active at the grassroots level, particularly in areas where traditional parties were weak, such as the urban shantytowns, the pueblos jóvenes, and rural areas in the mountains. Although the party only began activities in January 1990, by the time of the elections it had 200,000 members in its ranks.

However, its success at the polls did not translate into a lasting party machinery. The organization was much more of a front than a political party, and its ability to hold together was called into question within a few weeks after attaining power. Cambio 90's two bases of support had little in common with each other except opposition to Mario Vargas Llosa. Its links to Fujimori were new and were ruptured to a large extent when Fujimori opted for an orthodox economic shock program. Less than six months into his government, Fujimori broke with many of his Cambio supporters, including the second vice president and leader of the evangelical movement, Carlos García y García, and APEMIPE. The latter became disenchanted with Fujimori because small businesses were threatened by the dramatic price rises and opening to foreign competition that the Fujishock program entailed. During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, the FREDEMO, remained in control of both chambers of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, hampering the enactment of economic reform. Fujimori also had difficulty of combatting the Maoist Shining Path (Spanish: Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla organization due largely to what he perceived as intransigence and obstructionism in Congress. By March 1992, the Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the electorate, according to one poll; the president's approval stood at 42%, in the same poll.[2] In the 1995 general elections, Fujimori won re-election for a second term, while the party, along with its partner New Majority won a majority of seats in Congress.

During the 2000 elections, Martha Chávez suggested that Fujimori would dissolve Congress if Peru 2000 did not win a majority of seats.[3] She also said that she could not rule out a fourth election of Fujimori, despite the fact that the Constitution of Peru which was written in part by Chávez herself allows presidents to be elected no more than twice in a row.[3] Indeed, Chávez had earlier promised that Fujimori would not run in the 2000 elections. However, Fujimori ran instead.

In the 9 April 2000 legislative elections, the party was part of the Peru 2000 alliance in which, the alliance won 42.2% of the popular vote and 52 out of 120 seats in the Congress of the Republic.

In the aftermath of Fujimori's downfall in late-2000, the party ran once again, allied with New Majority in the 2001 general election, running for congress, attaining only three out of 120 seats in the Congress.[4] For the 2006 general election, the Alliance for the Future coalition was formed, in which Cambio 90 was part alongside New Majority. With Martha Chávez as their presidential nominee, the coalition placed fourth failing to qualify in the June run-off, while in the congressional election, the list got 13 out of 120 seats and received the most votes in Pasco.[5] After the 2006 elections, all of the 13 representatives elected on the Alliance for the Future lists has formed the Parliamentary Fujimorista Group (Spanish: Groupo Parlamentario Fujimorista) in Congress.

Last years and dissolution

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In the 2011 general election, Cambio 90 split from Fujimorism, and participated under the National Solidarity Alliance, with former Lima Mayor Luis Castañeda as their presidential nominee. The alliance placed fifth at both the presidential and congressional race, attaining nine out of 130 seats, with Renzo Reggiardo as the only elected congressman from Cambio 90. However, Reggiardo left the alliance after the elections and instead joined the small APRA-led Parliamentary Coordination bloc.[6] In late 2013, Reggiardo announced the party's official dissolution, and announced Peru Secure Homeland as its immediate successor.[7]

Electoral history

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Presidential elections

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Year Candidate Party / Coalition Votes Percentage Outcome
1990 Alberto Fujimori   Cambio 90 1st Round:
1 932 208
1st Round:
29.09
1st Round:
2nd
2nd Round:
4 189 897
2nd Round:
62.38
2nd Round:
1st
1995 Cambio 90-New Majority Electoral Alliance 4 645 279
64.42
1st
2000 Peru 2000

C90-NM-SU-SC

1st Round:
5 528 568
1st Round:
49.87
1st Round:
1st
2nd Round:
6 041 685
2nd Round:
74.33
2nd Round:
1st
2006 Martha Chávez   Alliance for the Future

C90-NM-SC

912 740
7.43
4th
2011 Luis Castañeda   National Solidarity Alliance

SN-C90-TPP-SU-UPP

1 440 143
9.83
5th
Year Votes % Number of seats  /  Position
1990 819 527 16.5%
32 / 180
  32 Minority
1995 2 193 724 51.1%
67 / 120
  23 Majority
2000 4 189 019

as part of Peru 2000

42.2%
52 / 120
  15 Minority
2001 452 696 4.8%
3 / 120
  49 Minority
2006 1 408 055

as part of Alliance for the Future

13.1%
13 / 120
  10 Minority
2011 1 311 766

as part of National Solidarity Alliance. Only 1 from Cambio 90.

10.2%
9 / 130
  12 Minority

Elections to the Senate

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Year Votes % Number of seats  /  Position
1990 1 240 132 21.7%
14 / 62
  14 Minority
Year Votes % Number of seats Position
1992 3 040 552 49.2%
44 / 80
Majority

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, Infogob. "Acerca de – Cambio 90-Nueva Mayoría". infogob.jne.gob.pe. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  2. ^ Smith, Peter H. Latin America in Comparative Perspective: New Approaches to Methods and Analysis. 1995, page 234.
  3. ^ a b Schmidt, Gregory D. "All the President's Women" in The Fujimori Legacy: The Rise of Authoritarian Democracy in Peru (2006). University Park, PA: Penn State Press.
  4. ^ Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, Infogob. "Acerca de – Alianza Electoral Cambio 90-Nueva Mayoría". infogob.jne.gob.pe. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  5. ^ Perú 21, Archive (26 April 2006). "Martha Chávez Complains about Alianza por el Futuro". blog.ubc.ca. Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ LR, Redacción (29 June 2011). "Renzo Reggiardo se aleja de Solidaridad Nacional". larepublica.pe (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Renzo Reggiardo cambia de nombre a Cambio 90 y lanza nuevo partido". Perú 21 (in Spanish). 28 December 2013. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.