Armando Villanueva

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Armando Villanueva del Campo (born 1915 - present) is a historical leader of the Peruvian American Popular Revolutionary Alliance. Villanueva was born in 1915 and at the age of 15 became an APRA party member in opposition to the military dictatorship of Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro. At the age of 18 he was imprisoned for his activities in Frontón prison in Peru. He was a political ally and personal friend of Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, the founder and most prominent leader of the APRA party.

Villanueva spent most of his early life in different prisons for his political activities. In 1940, along with other APRA political activists, Villanueva was exiled to Chile. Between the 1940s and 1960s Villanueva would spend his time in between Peruvian prisons and deportation to Chile.

From 1963 to 1968 Villanueva served as a deputy in the lower house of the Peruvian legislature representing Lima, serving as President of the House of Deputies from 1966 to 1967. Villanueva led the Aprista opposition to the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado.

The death of Haya de la Torre in 1979 propelled Villanueva as leader of the APRA party. As leader of the party Villanueva ran for the Presidency in 1980 resulting in a second place loss to the Popular Action party candidate Fernando Belaúnde Terry.

In 1985 Villanueva was elected to the Peruvian Senate and given the position of President of the Senate. During the Presidency of Alan García he was given the position of President of the Council of Ministers. In 1990 Villanueva was elected to his last term in the Senate, from 1990 to 1992, after which at the age of 90 Villanueva retired to dedicate the rest of his life to writing.