The military coup of October 3, 1968 appears to have inaugurated a new era in Peruvian sociopolitical life. Unlike earlier “revolutions,” the current one is neither a simple military intervention to give the traditional civilian system a breathing space nor is it the action of a traditional caudillo in alliance with the oligarchy. Rather, the Peruvian Revolution is a fundamental attempt to effect major structural changes in the sociopolitical economic order.

In the six years of Revolutionary government, many changes have been made. The semi-feudal power of the traditional coastal agricultural oligarchy has been broken and partially channeled into the modern industrial economy with its attendant influence. The means to this end was, of course, the agrarian reform which turned the large, productive coastal haciendas into generally economically successful producers' cooperatives. Similar results have been obtained in the industrial, mining, and fishing reforms.