Valentin Paniagua

Valentin Paniagua (December 23 1936 – October 26 2006) was a Peruvian politician. He was the President of Peru from 2000 to 2001. After Fujimori has fled Paniagua, was temporarily appointed by Congress to the presidency to organize and conduct new free elections. He headed Peru from November 22, 2000 to July 28, 2001.

Biography

Paniagua's father was from Bolivia, but spent most of his life in Peru. Valentin Paniagua was born in Cusco, where he received his secondary education and began his higher education, then in Lima, at the University of San Marcos, he graduated from higher education on the topic of constitutional law. Subsequently, he began a private law practice and later a political career. In 1963, he was elected to Congress from the City of Cusco from the Popular Action Party. After Fernando Belaunde came to power, Paniagua, despite his young age for such a position, was appointed Minister of Justice under the first Belaounda government.

After the coup organized by Velasco Alvarado, Valentin Paniagua was forced to leave politics and start teaching. During the military junta, the rule of Velasco and his follower Morales Bermudez, Paniagua remained in opposition to the government, considering their rule not constitutional. After holding free elections in 1980, Belaunde came back to power, his party won the parliamentary elections, and Panjagua was re-elected to Congress. On May 10, 1985, Paniagua became Minister of Education, but after a few months he left his post to continue working in Parliament, in the same year he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru. After the defeat of the Popular Action Party in the 1985 elections and the coming to power of Alan Garcia Perez, headed by APRA, Valentin Paniagua again found himself in opposition, becoming a serious opponent of the current government. During his reign, Garcia was a lawyer and taught constitutional law at the University of San Marcos.

In the 1990 elections, Paniagua with the majority of the Popular Action party supported the candidacy of Mario Vargas Llosa, but after an unexpected victory Fujimori went into opposition, and after the coup committed by Fujimori in 1992, he became a tough consistent opponent of the created regime.