Salas, The
rebellious rider
Everything began with a long ride from Huancavelica to
Lima by 1997, it was a five hundred kilometers ride. Salas was a t the head of 120
outrageous peasant riders. It took them eight days to reach the capital to submit his old
demands at the Governor’s Palace. On the way , 500 walkers (rural men and women)
joined the riders. Once they were at the Main Square, Salas asked for permission to get
into the Governor’s Palace with a small delegation and the disillusionment met him.
The President was not in his headquarters so nobody would receive them. Since then,
Federico Salas’ life began to change drammatically.
The famous mobilization that Peruvian press called
“La Gran Cabalgata de los Andes”, served to show him the courage of the peruvian
peasants and the coldness of the Palace walls. Contrary to what we could think, Federico
Salas is from Lima. He was born here on September 4th 1950. He was just 20 days
old when his family took him to Huancavelica, place where they had their main properties.
There he would spend his chilhood in an intermittent
way, going and coming back to Lima to study at school. In order to begin elementary
school, his parents registered him at Inmaculado Corazón. He studied high school at Santa
María. These schools have an exclusive category in the capital city. In his classrooms
had studied many of the sons of the Peruvian ruling class. When he finished his studies
and when Luis, his eldest brother died , he had to assume the responsibility of the family
business. He was 23 years old when he assumed that responsibility and according to some of
his ex workers, he did it quite well. He rised to his responsibilities. But what nobody
would expect to happen in Peru, took place on October 1968. The Army revolted and being
Velazco Alvarado at the head, they overthrew the first constitutional government of
architect Fernando Belaunde Terry. The reasons for this coup d’etat have been
explained in dozens of books. For our history it is only important to know that the
military government ordered a radical Agrarian Reform on June 24th 1969 and
Federido Salas’ family suddenly had no lands. All his family property was expropiated
and therefore ,a few months later, we had the complete Clan from Huancavelica in Lima .
They may as well look on the bright side,so Federico began to work as a car seller, then
he would get into the tourism branch and with that experience he would be hired by El
Banco de los Andes, where he reached the position of director. He was 30 years old.
By that time, he married Rosario Serpa Masias with
whom he set up a solid family and at the same time full of love. They had five children
and the eldest, Jorge, is a fervant fan of his father. He has said “He is a person
who has an admirable order and a huge vision of things, but without neglecting the
details. Moreover, he has a great capacity for understanding and that allows him to reach
his objective without hesitating.”
At the beginning of his marriage and right in the
conquest of the capital, Federico Salas tried to study marketing at Instituto Peruano de
Administración de Empresas (IPAE) an institution that has become famous for organizing
CADE (Conferencia Anual de Ejecutivos) every year and where businessmen, economists and
all the most importnat politicians have participated since 1960 until now. After that he
studied at ESAN (Escuela Superior de Administración de Negocios), other center of
business study of a well - recognized prestige in the country and abroad. In that center,
he consolidated his business training. In 1993 he decided to go back to Huancavelica to
rebuild the old family business. Agrarian Reform times were left behind, the bonds which
they offered to pay the expropiations were never paid by any government. The defeat of
terrorism was clear, the fields were too but misery has been spread even more among the
peasants.
In 1996, he ran for the Mayoralty of Huancavelica and
he won leaving others far behind. The image of prodigal son that go back to work for his
town was very strong, so much that it served him to win his second nomination in 1998,
thanks to an effective work.
But some of the structural problems could not be
solved only with the will to do it. It was necessary the support of central government.
Highways, energy, investments required understanding by Lima authorities and that was what
he could not get. Salas found out that oppressive phenomena so-called Centralism and in
order to cut its knots he began his famous ride to Lima. The rest is just recent History.
Salas has decided to run for the presidency of the
Republic. According to him, it is the only way to face the most difficult problems of the
country. He has founded the movement Avancemos and his main proposals are based on
decentralization. “I will be the president who will begin the process of
decentralization of power,” he said
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