[2] A dispute with the International Petroleum Company over licenses to the La Brea y Pariñas oil fields in Talara Province, northern Peru sparked a national scandal when a key page of a contract (the 11th) was found missing.

The Armed Forces, fearing that this scandal might lead to another uprising or a takeover from the APRA party, seized absolute power and closed down Congress, almost all of whose members were briefly incarcerated.

General Velasco seized power on October 3, 1968, in a bloodless military coup, deposing the democratically elected administration of Fernando Belaúnde, under which he served as Commander of the Armed Forces.

Initial reaction against the coup evaporated after five days when on October 8, 1968, the oil fields in dispute were taken over by the Army.

Although rumors of a coup and of a possible overthrow circulated around the Council of Ministers and Presidential Cabinet, no special measures were taken in the event of defending the palace from mutiny.

Close advisers to Belaúnde also reportedly saw him as drugged the night before the coup, presumably by traitors in the presidential residence itself.

Following the coup d'état, at 7 AM, Belaúnde was taken to a barracks and was forcibly taken to Jorge Chavez International Airport in Callao, Peru.