Peace Without Poison

population control program. Throughout his second term in office from 1980 to 1985 hecomplied with the depopulation prerogative and he finished his term in office without a coup oran impeachment. The total fertility rate declined from 4.7 to 4.3 children per woman.All subsequent Peruvian presidents have stayed the course: Alan García (1985-1990, 2006-2011), Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), and incumbent PresidentOllanta Humala (since July 2011). Of the three, Fujimori was by far the worse, as he forciblysurgically sterilized hundreds of thousands of indigenous people who lived in remote areas andcould not be reached by the government’s sterilizing poisons. The total fertility rate has declinedfrom 4.3 to 2.18 as of 2015.Peru’s fertility decline predates the use of contraceptives. During the 1960s and 1970s, whenPeruvians had not even seen contraceptives, the total fertility rate declined from nearly 7 to 5children per woman. During the 1980s, when the contraceptive prevalence rate rose to 45% (ofwhich less than 30% by modern methods) fertility declined from 5 to 4 children per woman.And from the 1990s until today, when the contraceptive prevalence rate has been around 70% (ofwhich only 50% by modern methods), fertility has declined from 4 to 2.2 children per woman.Contraceptives, therefore, have never been more than just a decoy for covert chemicalsterilization.Abortion is a non-factor in the fertility decline since it is illegal except in case of threat to the lifeor health of the woman.Peru has been rewarded for its depopulation efforts with a rising GDP. As the graph belowshows, the country’s GDP began to rise in the early 1990s, only after the country’s total fertilityrate had decreased from 7 to 3 children per woman.648 | P a g e