Minister of Justice and Cult
What position did Valentín Paniagua take from Sep 1965 to 1966?
Valentín Paniagua Valentín Demetrio Paniagua Corazao ( 23 September 1936 – 16 October 2006 ) was a Peruvian lawyer and politician who briefly served as President of Peru from 2000 to 2001 . Elected President of Congress on 16 November 2000 , he ascended to the presidency as incumbent Alberto Fujimori and both his Vice Presidents resigned by 22 November 2000 . Due to Fujimori shortening his presidential term in order to expire on 28 July 2001 , Paniaguas main task was to oversee the new elections . Paniagua was a longtime member Popular Action , serving as Secretary General and Party President . Early life and education . Paniaguas father was born in Bolivia but lived most of his life in Peru . Valentín Paniagua was born in Cusco and attended high school at Salesian School of Cusco . He went on to study law at the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad in Cusco , and subsequently transferred to the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos in Lima , where he completed his law degree . In the following years , he worked in his private practice as a lawyer and started a political career . In addition , he completed a masters degree in political science at the University of Indiana . In August 1955 , as a student leader , he was one of the founders of the Frente Universitario Reformista Independiente , a social-Christian reform organization , opposed to landowners rights , to the communists and to the APRA . Paniagua became a member of the Christian Democrat Party ( PDC ) , which was best aligned to his Roman Catholic and reformist ideals . Political career . In June 1963 he was elected to Congress as a representative for Cusco in the joint list of Acción Popular ( AP ) and PDC , an alliance that catapulted the leader of AP , Fernando Belaúnde , to the presidency of the country . Despite Paniaguas youth , Belaúnde appointed him Minister of Justice and Cult in his first government . In 1966 , a section of the PDC led by the then-mayor of Lima , Luis Bedoya Reyes , cut ties with the leadership of Héctor Cornejo Chávez and founded the Partido Popular Cristiano ( PPC ) . However , Paniagua remained in the ranks of the government . The coup détat of General Juan Velasco Alvarado on 3 October 1968 , sent Paniagua out of Congress and for some years he was left out of politics . His loyalty to the constitutional legality of Belaúnde led him to abandon the PDC on 27 July 1974 , in protest of its acceptance of the military government . Some time later he became a member of AP , and kept on a civil protest against Velasco and his 1975 successor , General Francisco Morales-Bermúdez . In the elections of 18 May 1980 , he was re-elected to Congress , and his party boss , Belaúnde , won his second presidency . In July 1982 , after being part of the Constitutional Commission of the Chamber of Deputies , he became President of the Chamber of Deputies . On 10 May 1985 , he became Minister of Education . In October of that year he resigned to return to his parliamentary activities . He was given the Orden del Sol in the Gran Cruz grade . The defeat of AP in the 14 April 1985 elections and arrival to power of Alan Garcías APRA sent Paniagua to the opposition . Over the following five years he remained a strong foe of the government and worked as a prestigious lawyer in academic and political circles , as well as a professor of constitutional law at the universities of San Marcos , Femenina del Sagrado Corazón and Pontificia Católica . In the national elections of 1990 , together with most of Acción Popular , Paniagua supported the candidacy of Mario Vargas Llosa for president . When Alberto Fujimori was elected President , Paniagua was part of the opposition , but became a strong opponent after Fujimoris auto-coup in April 1992 . Presidency . Fujimori was reelected once again in the controversial national elections of 2000 . Paniagua was a prominent member of the opposition . On 14 September the nation was rocked by evidence that Fujimoris security chief , Vladimiro Montesinos , had bribed an opposition congressman to switch to Fujimoris party , Perú 2000 . Fujimoris support evaporated at this point , and he was forced to announce he would step down after new presidential elections in 2001 . An OAS mission was sent to deal with the political crisis . Fujimoris allies lost control of Congress after numerous defections to the opposition . On 15 November 2000 , a majority of the Congress dismissed the acting President of the Peruvian Congress , a Fujimori supporter . After an internal discussion among the political forces , Paniagua was elected the new President of the Peruvian Congress . He was elected because all parties considered him to have a fair but strong character , needed in such times of crisis . A few days later , Fujimori submitted his resignation by fax . However , Congress voted 62-9 to reject Fujimoris resignation and remove him from office on grounds that he was permanently morally unfit . According to the line of succession , First Vice President Francisco Tudela should have succeeded to the presidency , but he had also resigned a few days before after breaking with Fujimori . Second Vice President Ricardo Márquez then claimed the presidency . However , Congress refused to recognize him since he was one of the few who were still loyal to Fujimori . When it became apparent that Congress would not allow Márquez to take office , he resigned as well . Therefore , since the President of Congress stood third in the line of succession , Paniagua became acting president . Paniagua formed a Unity and National Reconciliation Government that received the support of almost all the political parties of the time . He then proceeded to form a broad-based cabinet , which involved non-partisan technologists and low-profile politicians . It was headed by former UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar as Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs , who was chosen to avoid the increasing political pressure from the different political parties . He also dismissed the remaining military commanders who had had any type of involvement with or political connection to Montesinos . Paniagua had to work with Fujimoris Peru 2000 party in Congress , since it still was the most important political organization ( even though it no longer had a majority ) . Additionally , during most of his period , an important number of the infamous Vladivideos were published and investigated , since most of them recorded acts of corruption involving politicians , members of the clergy and important businessmen . Paniagua was also involved in the repeal of much of the anti-terrorist legislation enforced by Fujimori , which included trials by faceless judges and juries . This allowed the re-trial of several members of Shining Path , who were already in prison , in civilian courts instead of military ones . Paniagua also established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the internal conflict in Peru . Later political career . When his time as President of the Republic came to an end , he transferred the government to the democratically elected president and winner of the national elections of 2001 , Alejandro Toledo . In the same year , he was elected Secretary General of Acción Popular , replacing the long-time leader Fernando Belaúnde as the national leader of the political organization . For a brief period of time , it was speculated that the Peruvian government would support his candidacy for Secretary General of the Organization of American States ( OAS ) in the 2005 Secretary General election . He declined this in order to participate in the 2006 election , as Frente de Centros presidential candidate in an unsuccessful campaign , in which he came in fifth place , receiving 5.75% of the vote . He became a member of the Club of Madrid . Death . On 21 August 2006 , he fell seriously ill and was hospitalized for a week with a respiratory infection . A congressman wrongly reported that he had died and Congress observed a moment of silence in his honor , but he had not died and his health had in fact improved . However , in early October 2006 , the country learned from a medical spokesperson that Mr . Paniaguas condition had not improved significantly . Valentín Paniagua died in the early hours of 16 October 2006 in a hospital in Lima at the age of 70 .