The death of Haya de la Torre in 1979 propelled Villanueva to the leadership of the APRA party. As leader of the party Villanueva ran for the presidency in 1980 resulting in a second-place loss to the "Popular Action" party candidate Fernando Belaúnde. It is said that he lost the elections because the opposition mounted a negative campaign against him, claiming that he was married to a Chilean-born citizen. Chile's victory in the "Guerra del Pacifico" in 1883, which resulted in Peru losing a large chunk of its southern border to Chile, is still a subject of bad feeling in Peru.