If Colombia is characterised by evangelical parties, Peru is characterised by the massive entry of evangelicals into congress through a single newly formed secular party. This was in 1990, after a traumatic decade for Peru. Declining real incomes, enormous unemployment and rampant inflation were compounded by guerrilla warfare. The brutal Maoist Shining Path was combatted equally brutally by the army in the Andean emergency zones, largely inhabited by the Indians who make up over half of the population. After a military regime between 1968 and 1980, unique in Latin America for its left-leaning nationalist ideology, civilian democratic governments in the 1980s were unable to bring peace and development and were increasingly perceived as discredited and corrupt. The narco-economy was also gaining importance.

In 1990, the political outsider Alberto Fujimori formed a new party, Cambio 90, and ran for president. Against all predictions he won, with considerable support from Protestants, estimated at 7 per cent of the population. From Fujimori's side, the interest was access to the indigenous vote. With their presence in areas where state, parties and Catholic priests are absent, Protestants were an alternative route to mass politics; and with their fame for honesty, they seemed to be a hope for preventing social disintegration. Nineteen Protestants reached congress, all but one with Cambio 90. The head of the National Evangelical Council, a Baptist pastor, was elected second vice-president.