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The Changing Meaning of Cooperation: Rural Electrification in Cold War Peru, 1964–1976

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2022

Gonzalo Romero Sommer
Gonzalo Romero Sommer*
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Lima, Peru [email protected]
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Abstract

This article deals with the politics of Peruvian rural electrification during the Cold War years. In 1964, the inhabitants of the Mantaro Valley established the Cooperativa Eléctrica Comunal del Centro Ltda. 127, with the help of the central government and American aid agencies in the context of the Alliance for Progress. At first, this rural electric cooperative was seen as a legitimate way to channel traditional communal practices through an institution that was seen as modern, capitalist, and Western. However, in the fluid context of Peru's Cold War, electric cooperative development quickly became a heated political battleground. After a “revolutionary” military regime took power in 1968, the armed forces eventually defined the cooperative as an obsolete institution and quickly adopted their own cooperative model, free from any capitalist “vices,” as they sought to implement their own “revolution from above.” While the Cooperativa Eléctrica Comunal del Centro represented a successful combination of local discourse, foreign aid, and modern technology, its history also shines a light on the volatile politics of infrastructural development: as its political and economic meaning changed wildly as different political regimes oversaw its expansion and eventual downfall.

Keywords

Alliance for ProgressCold WarcooperativismPerurural electrification
Type
Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 79 , Issue 4 , October 2022 , pp. 653 - 679
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academy of American Franciscan History

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Footnotes

I thank Paul Gootenberg, Brooke Larson, Eric Zolov, Javier Puente, and Mark Rice, and the anonymous readers at The Americas for their comments on this article. I am also grateful to William Evensen, former Peace Corps volunteer, and Luis Carlos Arroyo, former member of the Cooperativa Eléctrica Comunal del Centro, for sharing their personal experiences. Special thanks to the staffs at the Biblioteca Municipal Alejandro O. Deústua in Huancayo, Junín, and the US National Archives for providing access to their archives. Research and writing were made possible by funding from a Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council, a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship of the American Council for Learned Societies, and Stony Brook University.

References

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3. For a general overview of Peru's electric development, see Giovanni Bonfiglio, Historia de la electricidad en Lima: noventa años de modernidad (Lima: Museo de la Electricidad, 1997); Alfonso Carrasco Valencia, La electricidad en el Perú: política estatal y electrificación rural (Lima: ITDG, 1990); and Azi Wolfenson, El gran desafío (Lima: Intergráf. de Servicios, 1981).

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28. Not to be confused with the province of the same name in Cuzco department.

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32. Chastain and Lorek, Itineraries of Expertise, 2.

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35. Clyde Ellis, A Giant Step (Random House: New York, 1966), 201–204.

36. Alfonso Carrasco Valencia, La electricidad en el Perú: política estatal y electrificación rural (Lima: ITDG, 1990).

37. “Cooperativa de electrificación está en marcha,” La Voz de Huancayo, November 23, 1964.

38. “Electrificación rural,” La Voz de Huancayo, November 23, 1964.

39. “Cooperativa de distribución de energía eléctrica,” El Comercio, November 21, 1964.

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41. “Power Cooperative is Formed in Peru,” New York Times, December 13, 1964.

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43. Troy Mitchell to Francis Dimond, June 22, 1965, US National Archives, RG 286: AID, Subject Files 1962–1973, Mission to Peru, Private Enterprise Division, box 5.

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45. Sheffield, “Peru and the Peace Corps,” 359–360. The diplomatic standoff affected all Peace Corps programs, which led many volunteers to express their dissatisfaction during Robert Kennedy's visit to Peru. Kennedy was viewed as friendly toward the Peace Corps. “Peace Corpsmen in Peru attack U.S. Aid Policy,” Washington Post, November 14, 1965.

46. “Republica Roja de Pucutá,” La Voz de Huancayo, June 9, 1965. For a history of the Revolutionary Left Movement, see Rubio, Daniela, “Las guerrillas peruanas de 1965: entre los movimientos campesinos y la teoría foquista,” Histórica 32:2 (2008): 123–167Google Scholar; and Jan Lust, La lucha revolucionaria: Perú, 1958–1967 (Barcelona: RBA, 2013). For the impact of the guerrillas on bilateral relations, see Walter, Richard J., Peru and the United States, 1960–1975: How Their Ambassadors Managed Foreign Relations in a Turbulent Era (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

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48. “Cooperativa reclama derecho de invertir 43 millones de soles,” La Voz de Huancayo, January 16, 1967.

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51. Troy Mitchell to Jim Cobb, July 12, 1967. July 12, 1967, US National Archives, RG 286: AID, Subject Files 1962–1973, Mission to Peru, Private Enterprise Division, box 5.

52. E. J. Ballard to Leon Evans, June 23, 1965, US National Archives, RG 286, AID, Subject Files 1962–1973, Mission to Peru, Private Enterprise Division, box 5.

53. Regarding relations with the United States, in a conversation with Ambassador Jones, Belaúnde expressed his complaints. “Belaúnde said he had only eighteen months left in office. In general, he was pessimistic. He had not had the support of the United States that would have allowed him to take Peru where it had to be.” Telegram from the Embassy in Peru to the State Department, February 27, 1968, US National Archives, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State, Central Files 1967–69, DEF 1 Peru.

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55. “Cooperativa Eléctrica Comunal del Centro: pasos al progreso,” La Voz de Huancayo, June 1, 1969.

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58. “A nuestros asociados y a la opinión pública,” La Voz de Huancayo, January 15, 1972.

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60. Law No. 19251, September 5, 1972, Biblioteca del Congreso de la República. https://www.congreso.gob.pe/biblioteca/?K=667

61. “Del cooperativismo a la propiedad social,” La Voz de Huancayo, February 16, 1976.

62. Luis Carlos Arroyo in interview with author. Lima, February 12, 2019.