Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:24:28.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Peru and the Soviet Union (1969–1989): Distant Partners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Ruben Berrios
Affiliation:
teaching fellow in the Economics Department of the University of Pittsburgh.
Cole Blasier
Affiliation:
Chief of the Hispanic Division of the US Library of Congress.

Extract

For twenty years the Soviet Union has had closer relations with Peru than with any other Latin American country apart from Cuba or Nicaragua. In fact, Peru was the first post-Cuban revolution centre of Soviet operations in South America, and perhaps still plays that role today. Now that the Cold War is over the balance sheet of Soviet relations with Peru can be evaluated with more detachment than ever.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Among the authors' works dealing with the subject are: Berrios, Rubén, ‘The USSR and the Andean Countries: Economic and Political Dimensions’, in Mujal-Leon, Eusébio (ed.), The USSR and Latin America (Boston, 1989)Google Scholar; and Blasier, Cole, The Giant's Rival, The USSR and Latin America (revised edn.) (Pittsburgh, 1987).Google Scholar

2 See Jaworski, Helán, ‘Peru: The Military Government's Foreign Policy in its Two Phases’, in Muñóz, Heraldo and Tulchin, Joseph (eds.), Latin American Nations in World Politics (Boulder, 1984)Google Scholar; Swansbrough, Robert E., ‘Peru's Diplomatic Offensive: Solidarity for Latin American Independence’, in Hellman, Ronald G. and Rosenbaum, H. Jon (eds.), Latin America: The Search for a New International Role (New York, 1975)Google Scholar; Madalengoitia, Laura, ‘Las relaciones Perú-Estados Unidos: una visión desde Perú’, in Hirst, Monica (ed.), Continuidad y cambio en las relaciones América Latina y Estados Unidos (Buenos Aires, 1987).Google Scholar

3 1989 was an exceptionally good year for Peru because the Soviets had committed themselves to making higher purchases at the fifth meeting of the Soviet-Peruvian bilateral commission where trade relations were assessed and the debt issue discussed. Further cooperation in various fields was also discussed. On the Soviet side, over 90% of their sales in 1989 were helicopters and spare parts as well as service for planes.

4 For a detailed account of the countertrade scheme between Peru and the USSR see Moreno, Nora, ‘Análisis del mecanismo de intercambio compensado Perú-URSS’, in Serie Avances de Investigación No. 15, CIESUL, Facultad de Economía (Lima, 1988)Google Scholar; Chong, Gladys Choy, ‘Comercio compensado y pago en especie de la deuda pública externa: Perú, 1984–85’, Monetaria, vol. 10, no. 3, (Mexico, 1987).Google Scholar The Soviet view is available in Shemelin, Yuri, ‘USSR-Peru: Trade and Economic Relations’, in Foreign Trade (Moscow), no. 7, 1989.Google Scholar

5 ‘La situación de la deuda Perú-URSS’, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, mimeo (Sept. 1989). See also El Peruano (Lima), 7 Feb. 1989; La República (Lima), 20 Jan. 1988; El Peruano (Lima), 24 07 1988; Latin American Monitor (London) (01.–02. 1988).Google Scholar

6 See Kisic, Drago, De la corresponsabilidad a la moratoria: el caso de la deuda externa peruana 1970–1986 (Lima, 1989)Google Scholar; Lecca, Hernán Garrido, ‘La conversión de deuda por productos’, mimeo (Lima, 1989).Google Scholar

7 The Andean Report (Lima, Sept. 1987 and April 1988).

8 US State Department, ‘Warsaw Pact Aid to Non-Communist LDC's, 1984’ (Washington D. C., 1986).Google Scholar

9 ‘Las embajadas opinan sobre el 20 aniversario del establecimiento de las relaciones diplomáticas entre la URSS y Perú’, América Latina (Moscow), May, 1989.

10 This has been discussed in an article by Berrios, Rubén, ‘Relations between Peru and the Socialist Countries’, East European Quarterly, vol. XXI, no. 1 (03 1987).Google Scholar

11 La República (Lima), 7 Oct. 1988; Comercio Exterior (Mexico), 02. 1989.Google Scholar

12 National Marine Fisheries Service, ‘Soviet—Latin American Fisheries Relations, 1961–1989’, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce, F/IA23: DJ-DW, IFR/89–39.

13 El Comercio (Lima), 30 Aug. 1989.

14 Hoy (Lima), 15 Jan. 1989.

15 A copy of the agreement as well as views on this and previous agreements can be found in Acosta, Eduardo Ferrero (ed.), Los convenios pesqueros entre el Perúy la Unión Soviética (Lima, 1987).Google Scholar

16 National Marine Fisheries Service, ‘Cuban Fishery Relations in the Americas, 1959–88’, US Department of Commerce, report PB 88–229661/GBA.

17 La República (Lima), 8 Jan. 1989.

18 Interview conducted by Rubén Berrios with retired Gen. Edgardo Mercado Jarrín, 5 Jan. 1988 in Lima.

19 ‘Entsiklopedicheskii spravochnik’, in Latinskaia Amerika, vol. 2, p. 458.

20 Prado, Jorge del, Cuatro Facetas de la Historia del PC (Lima, 1987), pp. 95106.Google Scholar

21 Among authoritative works on the subject are: Gorriti, Gustavo, Sendero: Historia de la guerra milenaria en el Perú (Lima, 1990)Google Scholar; McClintock, Cynthia, ‘Sendero Luminoso: Peru's Maoist Guerillas’, in Problems of Cummunism, 09/10. 1983Google Scholar; Gregori, Carlos Ivan de, Ayacucho 1969–79: El nacimiento de Sendero Luminoso (Lima, 1990)Google Scholar; and Anderson, James, Sendero Luminoso: A New Revolutionary Model? (London, 1987).Google Scholar

22 Violencia Politico en el Perú, 1980–1988, vol. 1 (Lima, 1989), p. 14.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., vol 1, p. 25. See also: US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1989, ‘Peru’, Report submitted to Congress, (Washington, 02. 1990) pp. 708723.Google Scholar

24 Violencia politico en el Perú, 1980–1988, vol. 1, p. 494.Google Scholar See also Peruano, Partido Comunista, Politics, Tesis, ‘Por una alternativa revolucionaria de poder’ (Lima, 1987), p. 32.Google Scholar

25 Violencia politico en el Perú, 1980–1988, vol. 1, p. 493550.Google Scholar

26 See, for example, Yakolev, P. P., ‘Peru mezhdu proshlym i budushchim’, in Latinskaia Amerika, no. 2 (1989), p. 82.Google Scholar

27 For a comprehensive assessment of Soviet perceptions of the Peruvian military during the late 1960s see Prizel, Ilya, Latin America Through Soviet Eyes: The Evolution of Perceptions During the Brezhnev Era 1964–1982 (Cambridge and New York, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 The figures include Soviet fishermen who man the Soviet fleet off the Peruvian coast. See The Andean Report (Lima), Sept. 1990.

29 For ‘new thinking’ in Soviet relations with Latin America see Zaitsev, N. G., ‘Perestroika i perspectivi sovetsko-latinoamerikanskikh otnoshenii’, in Latinskaia Amerika, no. 2 (1990), pp. 1124.Google Scholar