Morales Bermúdez, Francisco

▪ president of Peru

born Oct. 4, 1921, Lima, Peru

      general and politician who was president of Peru in 1975–80.

      Morales, the grandson of a former Peruvian president, was regarded as a moderate among the military leaders of Peru's 1968 revolution. He was minister of economy and finance from 1968 to 1974 and chief of the army general staff in 1974–75. In February 1975 he was named prime minister and minister of war by President Juan Velasco Alvarado, whom Morales overthrew in a bloodless coup on August 29. His aim, he said, was to “consolidate” the radical reforms of Velasco's military regime, which had included the nationalization of several sectors of the economy and a sweeping land reform program. But within a year, Morales had begun to reverse the nationalization of industry and had excluded from his Cabinet most of the early protagonists of the 1968 revolution. In 1977 Morales presented the four-year “Tupac Amaru Plan,” designed to return the country to civilian rule, reduce state control of the economy, and encourage foreign investment. Morales held elections on May 18, 1980, and stepped aside for the winner, Fernando Belaúnde Terry, the civilian president who had been overthrown by the military 12 years earlier. Morales ran for president unsuccessfully in the 1985 elections.

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