The following is the edited transcript of the English translation of the presentation by Carlos Gallardo to Panel 2 of the Schiller Institute conference, “100 Seconds to Midnight on the Doomsday Clock: We Need a New Security Architecture!” on February 19, 2022. Dr. Gallardo is the President of the Christian Democratic Party of Peru.

Good afternoon. I greet you from Lima, Peru. I am Dr. Carlos Francisco Gallardo Neira. I am a lawyer by profession and I’m the President of the Christian Democratic Party of Peru.

We thank the LaRouche movement and the Schiller Institute for this invitation to dialogue with all of you representatives of different areas, regions, and latitudes around the world, about the great importance for the world of carrying out the strategy of the Belt and Road, especially for the developing world. This Belt and Road can bring great benefits, especially for the underdeveloped sector, by closing the circle of the Belt and Road, which can raise the living conditions from less human to more human.

I’d like to say that we Christian Democrats in Peru believe that wealth and progress don’t happen by themselves. They definitely come from roads, and in this there is great agreement between that strategy and those methods of physical economy, of Christian economy, and our economic model, which is based on integration and fraternal solidarity among people.

But for that, the State must play a role to promote and lead this process, so that it is based on equality of opportunities and reaches the furthest corners of our countries. That is why our founder, Héctor Cornejo Chávez, back in the 1960s, foresaw a completely different Peru, one based on eight macro-regions, of course preserving the 24 or 25 departments along with their councils, and including participatory democracy through provincial municipalities, local authorities, etc.

Why do I mention this? Because Peru is totally committed, historically, to this idea of physical economy, of roads and highways that shorten distances and time, and bring people closer together. I would like to briefly mention that we in Peru are the heirs, so to speak, of our rich history, which included the Inca empire that was structured around a road network built during the reign of Pachacútec, in its four regions (“Tahuantinsuyo”): Northwest (“Chinchaysuyo”), Northeast (“Antisuyo”), Southwest (“Contisuyo”), and Southeast (“Collasuyo”).

At the time, our territory under the Inca empire reached from Colombia to Argentina, and included Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, and part of Brazil. The idea of our leaders, before the arrival of the Spaniards, was to integrate that great land area through roads. To do that, they invented or created the Inca Road network, which was the biggest in the Americas at the time. They called it “Qhapaq Ñan,” which means the “Inca Road” or the “Inca Route.” This connected the south of Colombia with Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and thus linked the economic and social policies with—who? With the capital of the empire, which was Cuzco.

This road network was used to transport food, clothing, and handicrafts—the trade in those days. This was very useful, so much so that when an Inca fisherman brought fish to the south of Peru, he could immediately take the fish to the Inca cities. It might be the imperial city of Cuzco or to Cajamarca and its famous neighborhoods.

That fish would be taken over those roads. Those same roads that we call the Inca Road network, were also taken advantage of during the Spanish conquest of Peru and other Latin American countries. They were used by them because they were excellent roads, which had spots along the way every so often to store food for the chasquis, or messengers, or others carrying messages and for trade.

This road network was used for communication. In those days there obviously weren’t any computers, but they were able to communicate almost in real time what was happening in Cuzco or any part of the empire to the Inca.

So, if we see this tradition, there is a history regarding the use of roads to integrate and create good economic and social policies to enable the people to develop more rapidly.

From the Pacific to the Atlantic

How then could we not believe in the Belt and Road?! As Christian Democrats we support the idea that you have to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The existing Port of Bayóvar, near the city of Piura, the capital city of Peru’s northwestern Piura region, for example, is an advantageous place where a mega-port could be built for very large, even giant ships.

From there, you could move freight by rail and modern roads up through the lowlands of our mountain range. You enter through Cajamarca, and then you cross the sierra to the edge of the jungle. You could reach Ucayali and then go into Brazil, and thereby reach the Atlantic.

This would clearly directly benefit eleven regions of Peru, and the rest would be indirectly integrated.

We believe that this would contribute greatly to our need for economic diversification, not having to depend on, or go on auto-pilot based on, the price of minerals abroad. In this way, Peru could be transformed into a region potentially heading towards progress. I believe that raising the living conditions of our people would be highly favorable for them, and for the common good.

Therefore, we believe in the project for bi-oceanic integration, to connect the people with the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and in that way to be able to reach Europe, Africa, and Asia as well.

So, I send my greetings and thank you for the opportunity you have given us, and tell you that we have to get back to doing things again. The Inca Road network was 30,000 kilometers long, and it was developed by the Incas. I’m sure that with the technology available in the world today, we can accomplish this rapidly and efficiently, and we can achieve progress for all of our people, not only for Peru, but also for the entire South American region.

Thank you. I greet you all with an abrazo from Peru. We hope to see you here soon.