Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez[a] (Latin American Spanish: [ˈalaŋ ɡaβˈɾjel luðˈwiɣ ɣaɾˈsi.a ˈpeɾes]; 23 May 1949 – 17 April 2019) was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011.

[12] On 17 April 2019, García died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head as police officers under a prosecutor's orders were preparing to arrest him over matters relating to the Odebrecht scandal.

From a very young age, he accompanied his father to party meetings and became acquainted with future leaders of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA),[19] such as Luis Alva Castro and Mercedes Cabanillas.

At 14, he was already an immensely talented orator when he first gave a speech in honour of party founder Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, whom he admired and followed until his death.

[21] In 1974, he moved to France with other members of the APRA to study at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 and the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l´Amérique latine (IHEAL).

[18] After earning a diploma in sociology from IHEAL, he was called by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre to come back to Peru in order to run for the Constituent Assembly election in 1978.

His economic policy was based on APRA's initial anti-imperialist values with García distancing Peru from international markets, resulting in lower investment in the country.

[4] Despite his initial popularity among voters, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990[19] and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% over the five years, which destabilized the Peruvian economy.

Hunger, corruption, injustice, abuse of power, partisan elitism, and social unrest raised to dramatic levels spreading throughout the whole nation due to García's misdeeds and incompetence, spurring terrorism.

The economic turbulence exacerbated social tensions and contributed in great part to the rise of the violent Maoist rebel movement known as the Shining Path, which launched the internal conflict in Peru and began attacking electrical towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima.

A U.S. declassified report, written in late 1987, said that García's party, APRA, and top government officials were running a paramilitary group, responsible for the attempted bombing of the El Diario newspaper, then linked to Shining Path, had sent people to train in North Korea and may have been involved in executions.

Later that same day, the board of the Chamber of Deputies requested the creation of a special committee to investigate García's presidency, accusing him of massive corruption and illicit enrichment.

Senator John Kerry presided over the BCCI scandal report,[32] which concluded García was not only guilty of corruption, but directly involved in an international racketeering network with activities that included drug and arms trafficking.

Finally, the Peruvian Supreme Court declared null all the probes and constitutional accusations gathered against García, allowing him to return to Peru after a 9-year self-imposed exile.

[39] In April 1995, Congress lifted Alan García's parliamentary immunity in response to accusations of him having received bribes from the Italian consortium Tralima for the construction of the Lima Metro.

[44] Anoop Singh, the IMF's Western Hemisphere Director, responded positively by saying he was "impressed by the vision of the president-elected for Peru, especially his commitment to applying prudent economic policy.

[47] In his first speech as president, García declared he would appoint a Finance Minister who was neither "an orthodox market liberal" nor a person "excessively in favour of state intervention in the economy".

According to the BBC, in private interviews García had stated his interest in a possible future trade agreement with Brazil, and considered himself "an admirer" of Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

[48] However, Humala said he wouldn't salute the winner personally, adding that "he and his party will constitute the principal opposition bloc, not to fight Mr. García, but to defend the interests of the State and watch the government".

[57] During his campaign, García had declared that he supported the death penalty for rapists of minors;[58] he reiterated this stance while in office, pushing a law on the issue, which would modify the criminal code.

[60][61] García faced his first major political defeat of his second term in office on 11 January 2007, when his proposal to introduce the death penalty as a punishment for captured Shining Path rebels was rejected by the congress in a vote of 49 to 26.

They had been demonstrating against the signing by Alan García of special decrees that allowed foreign corporations to enter Indigenous lands for oil drilling, mining and logging.

[68] After being elected, in the months prior to his inauguration, García sought to heal Peru's relationship with Chile, strained by the differences between the governments of Alejandro Toledo and Ricardo Lagos and severely impaired by former President Alberto Fujimori's extradition affair.

[72][73] On 9 November 2006, three months after being inaugurated, García signed 12 commercial agreements with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil,[74][75] strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

[79] In addition, he also dedicated himself to writing opinion articles, mainly on his internal and external vision, primarily aimed at reducing poverty in Peru, increasing foreign investment and issues related to the growth of the Peruvian economy with social sensitivity.

García ran for a third term as president in the 2016 Peruvian general election as the candidate of the criticized Popular Alliance coalition which included APRA's old rival, the Christian People's Party with Lourdes Flores as his first running mate.

Thus, on 18 November, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru reported that the ambassador of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay had communicated the entry of the former president to his residence and the request for diplomatic asylum.

[87] On January 4, 2019, García appeared before the prosecutor's office as a witness to testify in the investigation carried out against Miguel Atala (former vice president of PetroPerú), for having received a bribe from the Odebrecht company.

[89] On 17 April 2019, García shot himself in the head while hiding in his bedroom as he was being presented with a ten-day preliminary arrest warrant related to investigations for corruption and bribes his presidential secretary allegedly received from Odebrecht.

[13] After four hours, his death was announced by the heads of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) political party and Nidia Vílchez, with the cause being a "massive" cerebral hemorrhage and cardiorespiratory arrest.