His grandfather, the influential thinker, writer and diplomat Víctor Andrés Belaúnde was President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1959 to 1960 and his uncle[citation needed] Fernando Belaúnde Terry was the founder of the Popular Action and twice democratically elected President (1963–1968 and 1980–1985).

In the 1990 general election, he was re-elected for a second term, representing the liberal-conservative FREDEMO-coalition comprising his Popular Action, the Christian People's Party and the Liberty Movement and served until authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori dissolved the Congress in a self-coup in 1992.

In Congress, he was the speaker of the Parliamentary Alliance, a joint group of Center Front, Possible Peru and, initially, the National Restoration Party lawmakers.

[1] In this regard, he had a strong controversy with the then Vice President and Minister of Transport and Communications Martín Vizcarra, whom he described as a "sell-out country".

[2] In 2018, he ran for the presidency of Congress, leading a multiparty alliance that wanted to curb the hegemony of Fujimorism in the Board of Directors, but lost with a difference of 14 votes to Daniel Salaverry.