History of Peru (1919–1930)

Peruvian Republic República Peruana
1919–1930
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  "Firme y feliz por la unión" (Spanish) "Firm and Happy for the Union"
Anthem:  "Himno Nacional del Perú" (Spanish) "National Anthem of Peru"
Capital	Lima
Common languages	Spanish
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Demonym(s)	Peruvian
Government	Unitary presidential republic
President
• 1919–1930	Augusto B. Leguía
Legislature	National Congress
Historical era	Interwar period
• Leguía elected	18–19 May 1919
• Leguía coup	4 July 1919
• Leguía overthrown	25 August 1930
Currency	Libra de oro
Preceded by Succeeded by Peru Peru

Second presidency of Augusto B. Leguía 4 July 1919 – 25 August 1930
Cabinet	See list
Party	Reformist Democratic Party
Election	1919
Standard of the president

The history of Peru between 1919 and 1930 corresponds to the second presidency of Augusto B. Leguía, who won the elections of 1919 but soon after took power through a coup d'état as president-elect on July 4 of the same year. Its name in Spanish comes from the 11-year length of Leguía's presidency (Spanish: Oncenio de Leguía), with Leguía himself calling his government the New Motherland (Spanish: Patria Nueva).

It was characterised by the displacement of civilism as the predominant political force, the cult of personality surrounding Leguía and a dictatorial and populist style of government. Economically, there was a great opening to foreign capital, especially that of the United States. Leguía strengthened the Peruvian State, began the modernisation of the country and undertook a vast plan of public works, financed by loans and whose immediate purpose was to grandly celebrate the Centennial of the Independence of Peru in 1921. In the ideological aspect, there was the collapse of the traditional parties and the emergence of new currents, such as aprismo and socialism.

Leguía, who had already been constitutional president between 1908 and 1912, extended his government to a total of eleven years, after two constitutional reforms where he was re-elected in 1924 and 1929. It is divided into the following periods:

• Provisional Government: 4 July 1919 – 12 October 1919
• First election: 12 October 1919 – 12 October 1924
• Second election: 12 October 1924 – 12 October 1929
• Third election: 12 October 1929 – 25 August 1930

His last period was interrupted by a coup d'état perpetrated by the Peruvian Army, led by commander Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro. The overthrown Leguía was initially exiled to Panama, but his voyage was interruped and he was ultimately imprisoned at the Panopticon, where his son voluntarily accompanied him. Inside, his health severely deteriorated, leading to his hospitalisation at the Naval Hospital of Callao, where he died in 1932.

History

Rise to power

In the 1919 elections, called by the then president José Pardo, Ántero Aspíllaga (president of the Civilista Party) and Augusto B. Leguía presented themselves as the official and opposition candidates, respectively. The elections were held in a calm atmosphere and the trend was that Leguía would be the winner. But there were complaints of vices and defects on the part of both candidates and the matter went to the Supreme Court, which annulled thousands of votes for Leguía. There was a risk that the elections would be annulled by Congress, which would then be in charge of electing the new president. The outlook was not very encouraging for Leguía, since his political adversaries dominated Congress. Another concern of Leguía was facing an opposition majority in parliament, as had happened during his first government.

All of this pushed Leguía to carry out a coup d'état, which was carried out in the early hours of July 4, 1919. With the support of the gendarmerie and the passivity of the Army, Leguía's forces attacked Government Palace arrested President Pardo, and took him to the Penitentiary prior to his deportation to the United States. Immediately afterwards, Leguía proclaimed himself provisional president. Congress was dissolved. Leguía immediately called a plebiscite to submit to the vote of the citizens a series of constitutional reforms that he considered necessary. Among them, it was contemplated to elect at the same time the President of the Republic and the Congress, both with five-year terms (until then, the presidential term was four years and the parliament was renewed by thirds every two years). He simultaneously called elections to elect the representatives of a National Assembly, which during its first 30 days would be in charge of ratifying the constitutional reforms, that is, it would act as a Constituent Congress, and then assume the function of an ordinary Congress.

The National Assembly was installed on September 24, 1919 and was chaired by the sociologist and jurist Mariano H. Cornejo. One of the first tasks of said assembly was to count the votes in the presidential elections, after which it ratified Leguía as the winner, who was proclaimed constitutional president on October 12, 1919.

New constitution

The new constitution was approved in the National Assembly, which replaced that of 1860. It established a presidential term of five years (although at the moment it did not contemplate immediate re-election); the comprehensive renewal of parliament parallel to the presidential renewal; the regional congresses in the north, centre and south; the semi-parliamentary regime; the responsibility of the cabinet before each of the chambers; the recognition of indigenous communities; the impossibility of suspending individual guarantees, among other things.

One of its most important features of this was the protection of indigenous peoples and communities. Thus, article 58 established that:

The state protects the indigenous state and will dictate special laws for its development and culture in harmony with its needs. The nation recognises the legal existence of indigenous communities and the law declared the rights that correspond to them.

— Constitution of 1920, Article 58.

In turn, article 41 stated that the assets of indigenous communities are imprescriptible, thus protecting communally owned lands. Nevertheless, many of the progressive constitutional innovations were not implemented and remained only on paper.

Seizure of control

Although in theory Leguía wanted to adhere to the Constitution and run a government with respect for democratic principles, in practice his government restricted public liberties. In September 1919, the printing presses of the newspapers El Comercio and La Prensa were attacked by mobs with obvious government leadership. La Prensa, where the opposition had taken refuge, was confiscated. In this way, freedom of expression was practically subjugated. The opposition in Congress was also swept away, which was subject to the Executive. The deputies Jorge and Manuel Prado Ugarteche, the first for the province of Dos de Mayo, and the second for that of Huamachuco, were arrested and exiled.

On the other hand, it ended the Municipalities elected by popular vote to replace them with personnel appointed by the government (the so-called Juntas de Notables).

Opponents of the government were persecuted, imprisoned, deported and even shot. Prominent among the exiles was the then young student leader Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, who led the leftist mass protest against the consecration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the government on May 23, 1923, in which a worker and a student died.

In exile, Haya founded APRA, a party with continental projection initially with anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic ideology. Other opponents of the government, such as the young journalists José Carlos Mariátegui and César Falcón, were sent to Europe on scholarships. Mariátegui, upon returning to Peru, founded the Peruvian Socialist Party.

Other exiles were former President and Colonel Óscar R. Benavides, Arturo Osores, Luis Fernán Cisneros and Víctor Andrés Belaúnde. The island of San Lorenzo, in front of Callao, was enabled as a public prison where opponents were confined, whether they were civil professionals, military personnel or students. The island of Taquile, in Lake Titicaca, served the same purpose.

Modernisation

The modernisation of the country had already been tested by previous governments, but under Leguía it received its definitive impetus. The main bases of this modernising leap were the following:

• The State, which became the engine of development. Leguía considered that the State should be strengthened and intervene in a more dynamic and dominant way, to promote the country's prosperity. He thus distanced himself from the State model of civilism, the same one that had been based on liberal theories. In this way, the national budget grew enormously, that is, the State radically expanded its expenses, in order to implement a vast programme of public works.
• The return of the policy of large loans, something that had not happened in Peru since the 1860s and 1870s. The bad memory of these last loans, which had caused bankruptcy prior to the war with Chile, was overcome and the government arranged enormous loans with American banks, with which it financed its vast public works plan. Thus began Peru's dependence on American capitalism, which would inevitably force it to subordinate itself to all interests of that power (an example of the latter was the Paris Award and the solution to the conflict with Colombia).

Centennial celebrations

Main article: Centennial of the Independence of Peru

Leguía amid celebrations in 1921.

The most resonant event of this period was the apotheotic celebration of the Centennial of Independence on July 28, 1921. 29 foreign delegations arrived from countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia, with notable absences from Venezuela (whose government mistakenly believed that Simón Bolívar had been excluded from the tributes) and Chile (which was not invited because of its territorial conflict with Peru). Authorities and people in general spared no effort to magnificently celebrate the Centennial, despite the fire that devastated the Government Palace, among other difficulties. This fire occurred on July 3, 1921, destroying the ground floor of the Palace, although, by order of Leguía, it was rebuilt in the following weeks, leaving the premises ready to receive the delegations and special guests to the celebrations.

Each friendly nation made a gift to Peru, among the main ones, the National Stadium (United Kingdom); the Museum of Italian Art (Italy); the clock tower of the University Park (Germany); the water fountain in the Park of the Exhibition (China); the monument to Labour (Belgium); the Moorish Arch, which was built at the beginning of Avenida Leguía, a gift from the Spanish colony; the monument to Manco Cápac, in the Plaza Leguía, a gift from the Japanese colony; and others.

There were sumptuous parties at the Government Palace, in the clubs, gala horse races, popular festivals, the great military parade, school parades, float parades, and a series of inaugurations. One of the main events was the inauguration of the monument to José de San Martín, in the square that has since carried his name.

In December 1924, lavish celebrations were held again in Lima and Ayacucho, this time on the occasion of the first centennial of the battle of Ayacucho, the same one that had sealed the independence of Peru and continental America. On that occasion, the Gran Hotel Bolívar (in front of San Martín Square) and the monuments to Abel-Nicolas Bergasse du Petit-Thouars and Antonio José de Sucre were inaugurated, the latter in a square next to the Parque de la Reserva.

Petroleum controversy

Leguía faced the issue of La Brea y Pariñas. This was a lawsuit that consisted of the International Petroleum Company exploiting the oil fields of La Brea y Pariñas in northern Peru without contributing the real amount of taxes to the treasury, to which it was obliged according to Peruvian law, taking advantage of an old administrative error. Congress in 1918 had agreed that the matter be submitted to international arbitration, but Leguía, under pressure from the U.S. government, preferred to reach a transactional agreement.

This was signed on March 2, 1922, between the Peruvian Foreign Minister Alberto Salomón and the English representative A. C. Grant Duff. This transactional agreement was presented to the Arbitration Court, which met in Paris and was made up of the president of the Swiss Federal Court and the representatives of the Peruvian and English governments. On April 24 of that year, 1922, without further discussion, they approved the Transactional Agreement, which they granted the status of Award, the conditions of which were binding on the high contracting parties as a solution to the controversy.

The agreements of the so-called Paris Award were as follows:

• The property of La Brea y Pariñas comprised an area of ​​41,614 properties and covered the soil and subsoil or mineralised area.
• Owners and tenants would pay for 50 years the amount of thirty soles per year per working property and one sole per non-working property. The belongings that were no longer exploited would pay one sol and those that were abandoned would become the property of the government.
• The owners and/or tenants would pay the corresponding export tax, which could not be increased for twenty years.
• The owners would only pay one million pesos, American gold, for contributions accrued as of December 31, 1921. In turn, the government of Peru annulled previous resolutions that were opposed to the spirit and execution of what was stipulated in the Award.

This arbitration award was adverse to Peruvian interests since it established a tax exception regime for the owners and exploiters of La Brea y Pariñas. The Treasury thus stopped receiving substantial amounts of money as taxes. The Leguía government thus set a precedent of submission to U.S. interests that would give rise to nationalist protests for several decades.

Railroad controvery

Another controversial agreement was the one signed with the Peruvian Corporation. Since 1890, this English company had been in charge of operating the national railways, which had to be for a specific period, as stipulated in the Grace Contract. In 1907, this period was extended until 1973. However, in 1928, the Leguía government signed a new exchange contract with the corporation, by which it transferred the national railways in perpetuity in exchange for some compensation. In the 1970s, under the so-called revolutionary government, this situation came to an end with the nationalisation of the railways and their exploitation through the state company Enafer Perú.

Election controversy

As the end of his term approached in 1924, Leguía had the article of the Constitution that prohibited immediate presidential re-election reformed, with the support of a submissive Congress. Even Germán Leguía y Martínez, his cousin and Minister of Government, opposed said re-election plan, for which he suffered prison and exile. All opposition swept aside, Leguía was re-elected in elections that had no guarantees and was sworn in for a new five-year presidential term.

In 1929, as the end of his second consecutive government approached, Leguía proposed to reform the Constitution again, to allow his indefinite re-election. Congress made the amendment and Leguía was re-elected in another fraudulent election, for a third consecutive five-year period, but which would only last until 1930.

Provincial revolts

The opposition against the regime gradually increased as rebellions broke out in a number of provinces, including: Cuzco, Puno, Loreto, Apurímac, Huacho, Chicama, and especially in Cajamarca.

• On August 5, 1921, a revolt led by Captain Guillermo Cervantes broke out in Iquitos, who assumed the prefecture and confronted the government forces sent to subdue him. But the lack of support from the rest of the country, the fear of the civilian population and the moral deficiency of his soldiers forced Cervantes to withdraw to Ecuador in January 1922.
• Augusto Durand, who was in exile, returned in 1923 to organise a revolution against Leguía's re-election plans. After entering through the border from Tumbes, he marched on horseback towards Piura, but was arrested in Paita. He was taken aboard the cruise ship Almirante Grau, which set sail for Callao, on March 27, 1923. Durand was sick and bedridden with acute pain. His condition gradually worsened, until he died on March 31, before the ship reached its destination. The autopsy performed on his body determined that he had a strangulated diaphragmatic hernia of the stomach, caused by the bullet he suffered in an attack in 1919. That is, his death had occurred due to the aggravation of an ailment that he already suffered from. However, the version emerged that he had actually been poisoned, accusing the government of plotting such a crime.
• In November 1924, Dr. Arturo Osores, Colonel Samuel del Alcázar (a veteran of the War of the Pacific) and Lieutenant Carlos Barreda, after remaining in exile, clandestinely returned to Peru, with the purpose of organising a revolution. They brought together the armed gangs that operated in the department of Cajamarca, such as the one headed by Eleodoro Benel. At the head of 150 men they attacked the city of Chota, managing to reduce the troops that garrisoned it on November 20, 1924. The rebels remained in Chota for four days, while the government forces reorganised. Finally, they attacked and defeated the rebels at the Churrucancha hacienda, two leagues from Chota. On November 29, Zavala and his soldiers entered Chota and the next day Colonel Alcázar and Lieutenant Barreda were shot without trial. Osores, who was ill, fled towards the coast, but was captured. He was imprisoned on San Lorenzo Island, along with his wife and his children, for almost six years, until in 1929 they were all shipped to the United States.

Indian revolts

Although Leguía founded the Patronato de la Raza Indígena and showed his interest in legalising the communities, during his government there were many indigenous rebellions, which were severely suppressed. One of the reasons for the discontent was the Road Conscription Law, which forced the population to work as labourers in road works. Another reason was the abuse of gamonalism, a system of exploitation of the peasants of the haciendas, characterised by its productivity and profitability, the waste of labour force and the cultural exclusion of its agricultural labourers. The gamonales held considerable local power and were the firmest propagators of the thesis of the racial inferiority of the Indians, accussing the race of vices that they themselves tried to maintain, such as ignorance and the consumption of alcohol and coca. The indigenous communities continued, however, to subsist despite the fact that the gamonales made every effort to take away their lands and reduce the Indian to the status of serf.

In 1921 there were massacres of indigenous people in Layo and Tocroyoc, Cuzco. Between 1922 and 1927 there were a series of uprisings in Ayacucho, La Mar, Tayacaja, Huancané, Azángaro and Quispicanchis.

A consequence of this discontent was the banditry that proliferated in the provinces. There was no province that did not have its famous bandit. Many of them even confronted each other, when they were not fleeing from law enforcement. A bandit was, properly speaking, a highway robber, but he could also have a political ideology and be a kind of Montonero who supported a leader or a political tendency. Famous bandits were Luis Pardo, who acted in Huaylas; and Eleodoro Benel, who had his radius of action in Cajamarca. The actions of the bandits have generally been marginalised by historians, with writers having been in charge of preserving their memory, as can be seen in the works of Enrique López Albújar and Ciro Alegría.

New political parties

During this period, the first modern political parties in Peru emerged, replacing the old or traditional ones that were already extinct or in decline (such as the Civil, the Democratic, the Constitutional and the Liberal parties). The two main ones were:

• The American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, founded on May 7, 1924 by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre in Mexico City, as a political movement with continental projection, of an anti-imperialist nature and that advocated the formation of a united front of manual and intellectual workers to confront the oligarchies, then dominant in the governments of "Indoamérica". In 1930, the Peruvian branch was founded in Lima.
• The Peruvian Socialist Party, founded in 1928 by José Carlos Mariátegui, a prominent Marxist thinker and sociologist, author of Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality. Mariátegui adopted Marxism-Leninism as his ideology, although without falling into dogmatism. He proposed a type of socialism adapted to the Peruvian reality.

Overthrow

Rebellion against Leguía in Arequipa (1930).

The world crisis of 1929 had very serious effects on the national economy of Peru. The working sectors, directly affected by the rise in the cost of living and the scarcity of subsistence, were the first to raise their protest. The army also showed its discontent. The evident administrative corruption, from which close associates or friends of the president benefited throughout the regime, as well as the signing of treaties with Colombia and Chile with territorial transfer, further accentuated opposition to the government. Subversive actions and assassination attempts on the president were rumoured.

On August 22, 1930, Commander Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro, in command of the Arequipa garrison, carried out a revolt against the government. The revolutionary movement spread quickly through the south of the country, while the atmosphere in Lima toward it was favourable. To dominate the situation, Leguía attempted to form a military cabinet, but in the early hours of the morning of August 25, the Lima garrison requested his resignation.

Leguía accepted and resigned command, which remained in the hands of a Military Government Junta chaired by General Manuel María Ponce Brousset. Two days later he would hand over power to Sánchez Cerro, who arrived in the capital by plane.

See also

• History of Peru

Bibliography

• Basadre, Jorge (2005). Historia de la República del Perú (1822–1933) (PDF). Vol. 14 (9th ed.). Lima: Empresa Editora El Comercio S. A. ISBN 9972-205-74-6.