BELTRN, PEDRO GERADO

(b. Feb. 17, 1897, Lima, Peru-d. Feb. 16, 1979, Lima), Peruvian economist, diplomat, and publisher whose brief term as prime minister and minister of finance (1959-61) stabilized the Peruvian economy. A graduate of the London School of Economics (1918), Beltrn was the longtime owner (1934-74) and publisher of the influential Lima newspaper La Prensa ("The Press"). An ultraconservative in social and economic matters, he helped organize in 1936 the National Party, whose candidate lost the presidential election that year. After returning from his post as the ambassador to the United States (1944-45), he used his newspaper to lead a campaign to outlaw the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), a reformist political party. In 1956, during the autocratic regime of President Manuel Odra (1948-56), Beltrn was jailed for one month on the island prison of El Frontor, for advocating a relaxation of Odra's repressive rule. In 1959 President Manuel Prado Ugarteche appointed Beltrn prime minister and minister of finance. He repaid Peru's debt to the International Monetary Fund, cut inflation, and strengthened the country's foreign reserves and its balance of trade. He dropped plans to run for president in 1962 after his initial campaign rally attracted only a handful of supporters. Beltrn returned to editing La Prensa until the newspaper was expropriated (1974) by President Juan Velasco Alvarado.