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| Missing image Valentín_Paniagua.jpg Valentín Paniagua Corazao | |
| Full Title: | President of a United Government and National Reconciliation |
| Term in Office: | November 22, 2000 – July 28, 2001 |
| Predecessor: | Alberto Fujimori |
| Successor: | Alejandro Toledo |
| Date of Birth: | September 23, 1936 |
| Date of Death: | --- |
| Political party: | Acción Popular |
| Profession: | Attorney |
Valentín Paniagua Corazao (born September 23, 1936), in Cuzco, is a Peruvian Congressman. He was elected by the Peruvian Congress to serve as interim President of the country after Alberto Fujimori resigned in November 2000. His main task was to organize fresh elections, after which, in July 2001, he stood down from the presidency.
Paniagua is a member and currently Secretary General of the Acción Popular party.
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Biography
Early years
His father was born in Bolivia but raised and lived most of his life in Peru. Valentín Paniagua went to high school at the Colegio Nacional de Ciencias in Cuzco. Then, he went on to study Law at the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad in Cuzco and later at the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. He finished there specializing in Constitutional Law. In the following years, he worked in his private practice as lawyer and also started a political career.
In August 1955, as a student leader, he was one of the founders of the Frente Universitario Reformista Independiente, a social-Christian reform organization, opposed to the landowners right, to the communists and to the APRA. Paniagua became a member of the Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC), which was best aligned to his Catholic and reformist ideals.
Political Career
In June 1963 he was elected as a representative for Cuzco in the joint list of Acción Popular (AP) and PDC, an alliance that catapulted the leader of AP, Fernando Belaúnde Terry, to the Presidency of the country. Even being too young, Belaúnde appointed him minister of Justice and Culture of his first government.
In 1966, a section of the PDC lead by the then major of Lima, Luis Bedoya Reyes, cut ties with the leadership of Cornejo Chávez and founded the Partido Popular Cristiano (PPC). However, Paniagua remained in the ranks of the government.
The coup-de-etat of the General Juan Velasco Alvarado on October 3, 1968, took Paniagua out of Congress and for some years he was left out of politics. His loyalty to the constitutional legality of Belaunde led him to abandon the PDC on July 27, 1974, in protest for its acceptance of the military government. Some time later he became a member of AP, and kept on a civil protest against Velasco and his 1975 successor General Francisco Morales Bermúdez.
In the elections of May 18, 1980, he was elected depute to the Congress, and his party boss, Belaunde, won his second presidency.
In July of 1982, after being part of the Constitutional Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, he became President of the Chamber of Deputies.
On May 10, 1985 he became Minister of Education. In October of that year he resigned to return to his parliamentary activities. He was given the Orden del Sol in the Gran Cruz grade.
The defeat of AP in the April 14, 1985 elections and arrival to power of Alan Garcia's APRA sent Paniagua to the opposition. In the following 5 years he remained a strong foe of the Government and worked as a prestigious lawyer in the academic and political circles, as well as Professor of constitutional law in the universities of San Marcos, Femenina del Sagrado Corazón and Pontificia Católica.
In the National Elections of 1990, together with most of Acción Popular, supported the candidacy of Mario Vargas Llosa for President. When Alberto Fujimori was elected President, Paniagua was part of the opposition, but became a strong opponent after Fujimori's auto-coup in April 1992.
Presidency
Elected once again in the controversial National Elections of 2000, he was a prominent member of the opposition. When Alberto Fujimori resigned in November 2000, Parliament was in charge of selecting his successor. This was possible due to the resignation of the 1st Vice-president Francisco Tudela a few days before. Also, Parliament refused to recognize the 2nd Vice-president Ricardo Márquez as Interim President, since the Opposition considerated him a Hard-liner Fujimorista.
Supported even by Fujimori's Party (Perú 2000), he was elected (after defeating Perú Posible candidate Carlos Ferrero in the congressional vote) President of the Peruvian Congress, and elected to serve as interim President of the country.
One of his first actions as President was the appointment of Javier Perez de Cuellar as Prime Minister of the country and Minister of Foreign Affairs, in order to avoid the increasing political pressure from the different political parties.
One of his first actions as President of the Republic was the establishment of a Unity Government and National Reconciliation that received the support of almost all the political parties of the time. He then proceeded and formed a moderate Government Cabinet, which involved several ex-fujimoristas ministers, non-partisan Technicians and low-profile politicians. Also, he proceeded with the removal of the Military Commanders that were involved or have any type of political connection with Vladimiro Montesinos.
He was force to work with Fujimori's Party (Peru 2000) on congress, since they still were the most important political organization (as minority, since it no longer have a majority). Also, during most of his period, an important number of the infamous Vladivideos were published and investigated, since most of them recorded corruptions act involving politicians, members of the cleric and important businessmen.
Also, he was involved in the derogation of much of the Anti-Terrorist legislation enforced by Fujimori, which allowed the re-trials of several members of Shining Path already in prison. In order to calm the public opinion, he claimed that this would only involve low-level convicted insurgents, and not the core of this organization (like Abimael Guzman, leader of Shining Path and currently serving a life sentence in prison).
Current situation
When his time as President of the Republic came to an end, he transferred the government to the democratically elected President and winner of the National Elections of 2001, Alejandro Toledo. In the same year, he was elected Secretary General of Acción Popular, in replacement of Fernando Belaúnde Terry, as national leader of the political organization.
According to a poll by Apoyo published in El Comercio in April 2005, Paniagua is the leading candidate for President in the April 2006 elections, with a 23% vote intention. He is followed by Alan García 21%, Lourdes Flores Nano of the Popular Christian Party (PPC) with 17% and Alberto Andrade of We Are Peru (SP) with 7%.
For a brief period of time, it was speculated that the Peruvian Government would support his candidacy for Secretary General of the OAS. He declined this in order to participate in the 2006 elections.
| Preceded by: – | President of the Chamber of Deputies July 1983 – July 1984 | Succeeded by: – |
| Preceded by: Martha Hildebrandt | President of Congress November, 2000 | Succeeded by: Carlos Ferrero |
| Preceded by: Alberto Fujimori | President of Peru November 2000 – July 2001 | Succeeded by: Alejandro Toledo |
| Preceded by: Fernando Belaúnde Terry | General Secretary of Acción Popular August 2001 – | Succeeded by: Incumbent See alsoExternal links
es:Valentín Paniagua Corazao sv:Valentin Paniagua Corazao zh:巴倫廷·帕尼亞瓜 |