Everything about Augusto B Legu A totally explained
Augusto Bernardino Leguía y Salcedo (
1863 –
1932) was a Peruvian politician who twice occupied the
Presidency of
Peru, from
1908 to
1912 and from
1919 to
1930.
Early life
Augusto Leguía was born in
Lambayeque in 1863 to one of the most distinguished families of the Peruvian oligarchy. Educated in
Valparaíso,
Chile, he served in the Peruvian army during the
War of the Pacific (1879-1881).
After the war he moved to the United States and became an insurance executive with the
New York Life Insurance Company. By the
1900s, Leguía had become very wealthy and decided to return to Peru. He entered politics in 1903 at the urging of
Manuel Candamo (the then leader of the
Civilista Party) and also of
José Pardo, who was
Prime Minister. Leguía took the position of
Minister of Finance, a post he'd retain until 1904, when the former Prime Minister José Pardo became president. Pardo offered the position of Prime Minister to Leguía, who accepted and remained so until 1907, when he resigned to run for the presidency the following year.
First presidential term
In 1908 he succeeded
José Pardo (a succession event that would occur again in 1919) after being elected president for the first time by an alliance of the Civil and Constitutional parties. Some of Leguía's first actions were to institute social and
economic reforms in an attempt to industrialize Peru and turn it into a modern capitalist society.
On
May 29,
1909, a group of citizens (supporters of
Piérola's Democratic Party) managed to force their entry into the
Palacio de Gobierno demanding the resignation of Leguía. Among the group were the brother and sons of Piérola;
Carlos de Piérola,
Isaías de Piérola and
Amadeo de Piérola. Since Leguía didn't resign as planned, they kidnapped him and took him in front of the Bolivar Monument (located in
Plaza inquisicion in Lima). Once there, Leguía didn't acquiesce to their demands, and the police had to forcibly rescue the president in the midst of a fight that caused at least 100 deaths.
During this period the country was also confronting boundary disputes with five of its neighbors. Leguía succeeded in reaching agreements with two of them,
Bolivia and
Brazil.
- The Boundary with Brazil was settled with the signing of the Treaty of Velarde-Río Branco. This provided that two rivers (Yaravi and Yaverija) would compose most of the border for both countries.
- With Bolivia, The Treaty of Polo-Bustamante determined the partition of the Lake Titicaca and provided a much accurate definition of the Peruvian-Bolivian border. This treaty also delimited the borders with Tacna (which was until then in Chilean control).
When Leguía's term ended in 1912, he was succeeded by
Guillermo Billinghurst, a millionaire businessman who had been the former mayor of
Lima. During the following years, Leguía travelled in the
United Kingdom and the
United States, where he learned methods of banking and finance that he'd later apply in Peru. During this time, Leguia was already in conflict with the
Civilista Party and left its organization.
Second presidential term
In 1919, he again sought the presidency of Peru by trying to succeed José Pardo. Fearing that the former president's government along with the Civilist Parliament wouldn't recognise his victory, he launched a successful military coup, which led Leguía to succeed Pardo as an interim president. He then proceeded to dissolve Congress and the new parliament elected him constitutional president of Peru.
Leguía changed the Peruvian constitution (which had the longest continuance since 1860), and promulgated a new one in 1920, which was more liberal than its predecessor and provided more civil guarantees and unlimited reelections. Nevertheless, having himself promulgated the constitution, Augusto B. Leguía almost completely ignored it and the next 10 years of his tenure were marked with a
dictatorial style of ruling by suppressing all opposition harshly. Various political opponents of his government were exiled, of which the most prominent was
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, who while in exile in
Mexico founded the
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) in 1924. It became one of modern Peru's most active and also most trouble-maker political parties. Another important political figure that would emerge during this era was
José Carlos Mariátegui, leader of the
Communist Party of Peru.
Among the positive initiatives that occurred during Leguía's second term was a program to modernize Lima by planning and starting public works through various loans. These included improving the health-care system by founding hospitals and building drainage systems around the cities. Peru's
Government Palace ("Palacio de Gobierno") was also remodeled in 1926. Banks such as the
Banco Central de Reserva del Perú and
Banco Hipotecario of Peru were also created during his second presidency.
Treaties of limits with
Colombia and
Chile were also signed:
The boundary with Colombia was settled with the secession of all the lands between the Putumayo and Caquetá rivers. This was officially solved with the signing of the Treaty of Salomón-Lozano in 1922. (However, the treaty was published after the overthrow of Leguía in 1930.)
The Tacna-Arica compromise was also signed with Chile, which unfortunately led to economic depression in later years. Leguía was bitterly criticized for accepting the compromise.
Overthrow
The world depression had drained foreign investment in Peru and after eleven years in power, Leguía's government was overthrown. The coup, on August 22, 1930, was led by Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro in Arequipa. Leguía was arrested and charged with misappropriating government funds. He remained in confinement in the Panóptico of Lima, and died at a naval hospital on February 6, 1932.
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