Augusto B.

Legu�a
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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Legu�a and the second or
maternal family name is Salcedo.
Augusto B. Legu�a
Augusto B. Legu�a (portrait).jpg
President of Peru
In office
12 October 1919 � 25 August 1930
Prime Minister Melit�n Porras Osores
German Legu�a y Mart�nez
Julio Ego-Aguirre Dong
Alejandro Magui�a
Pedro Jos� Rada y Gamio
Benjam�n Huam�n de los Heros
Fernando Sarmiento Ram�rez
Vice President C�sar Canevaro
Agust�n de la Torre Gonz�lez
Preceded by Augusto B. Legu�a (Provisional President)
Succeeded by Manuel Ponce (Military Junta)
In office
24 September 1908 � 24 September 1912
Prime Minister Eulogio I. Romero Salcedo
Rafael Fern�ndez de Villanueva
Javier Prado y Ugarteche
Germ�n Schreiber Waddington
Jos� Salvador Cavero Ovalle
Enrique C. Basadre Stevenson
Agust�n Ganoza y Cavero
Vice President Eugenio Larrabure y Unanue
Belisario Sosa
Preceded by Jos� Pardo
Succeeded by Guillermo Billinghurst
Provisional President of Peru
Coup d'�tat
In office
4 July 1919 � 12 October 1919
Prime Minister Mariano Cornejo Zenteno
Melit�n Porras Osores
Preceded by Jos� Pardo y Barreda (Constitutional President)
Succeeded by Augusto B. Legu�a (Constitutional President)
Prime Minister of Peru
In office
September 24, 1904 � August 1, 1907
President Jos� Pardo y Barreda
Preceded by Alberto Elmore Fern�ndez de C�rdoba
Succeeded by Agust�n Tovar Aguilar
Minister of Finance and Commerce
In office
September 8, 1903 � August 1, 1907
President Manuel Candamo
Serapio Calder�n
Jos� Pardo y Barreda
Prime Minister Jos� Pardo y Barreda
Alberto Elmore Fern�ndez de C�rdoba
Augusto B. Legu�a
Preceded by Pablo Sarria
Succeeded by Germ�n Schreiber Waddington
Personal details
Born Augusto Bernardino Legu�a y Salcedo
February 19, 1863
Lambayeque, Peru Peru
Died February 6, 1932 (aged 68)
Callao, Peru Peru
Political party Civilista Party
(until 1920)
Reformist Democratic Party
(1920-1932)
Profession Economist
Augusto Bernardino Legu�a y Salcedo (February 19, 1863 � February 6, 1932)[1] was a
Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru from 1908 to 1912 and from 1919
to 1930, the latter term known as El Oncenio de Legu�a (Legu�a's Eleven-Year Rule)
in Peru's republican history.

Contents
1 Early life
2 First presidential term
3 Second presidential term
4 Overthrow
5 Reception
6 Notes
7 External links
Early life
Augusto Legu�a was born in Lambayeque in 1863, and later married into one of the
most distinguished families of the Peruvian oligarchy. Educated in Valpara�so,
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, Legu�a 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 Jos� Pardo, who was
Prime Minister. Legu�a took the position of Minister of Finance, a post he would
retain until 1904,[2] when the former Prime Minister Jos� Pardo became president.
Pardo offered the position of Prime Minister to Legu�a, who accepted and remained
so until 1907, when he resigned to run for the presidency the following year.

First presidential term

Legu�a portrayed on the cover of Time (1930)

In 1908 he succeeded Jos� 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 Legu�a'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 Pi�rola's Democratic Party)

managed to force their entry into the Palacio de Gobierno demanding the resignation
of Legu�a. Among the group were the brother and sons of Pi�rola; Carlos de Pi�rola,
Isa�as de Pi�rola and Amadeo de Pi�rola. Since Legu�a did not resign as planned,
they kidnapped him and took him in front of the Bolivar Monument (located in Plaza
inquisicion in Lima). Once there, Legu�a did not 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. Legu�a 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-R�o
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 more accurate definition of the Peruvian-Bolivian
border. This treaty also delimited the borders with Tacna (which was until then in
Chilean control).
When Legu�a'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, Legu�a travelled in the United Kingdom and the United States, where he
learned methods of banking and finance that he would 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 Jos� Pardo.
Fearing that the former president's government along with the Civilist Parliament
would not recognise his victory, he launched a successful military coup, which led
Legu�a to succeed Pardo as an interim president. He then proceeded to dissolve
Congress and the new parliament elected him constitutional president of Peru.

During Legu�a's presidency, Peru celebrated its centenary since independence from
Spain. Legu�a's name figures prominently on the diploma which accompanied the
commemorative decoration awarded to Captain Ernesto Burzagli of the Italian Royal
Navy when his ship visited Peru as part of a round-the-world voyage.
Legu�a 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. Legu�a almost
completely ignored it.

The years of his tenure were marked with a dictatorial style of ruling by
suppressing all opposition harshly.

Although he represented the Peruvian oligarchy, the oligarchs revolted against him
when he came to power, and it was his loyal supporters who installed him. Therefore
he broke ties with the oligarchy, who protested his coup.[3]

Various political opponents of his government were exiled, of which the most
prominent was V�ctor Ra�l 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 controversial political parties. Another important political
figure that would emerge during this era was Jos� Carlos Mari�tegui, leader of the
Communist Party of Peru.

Among the positive initiatives that occurred during Legu�a'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 Per� 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 Caquet� rivers. This was officially solved with the signing of the
Treaty of Salom�n-Lozano in 1922. (However, the treaty was published after the
overthrow of Legu�a in 1930.)
The Tacna�Arica compromise was also signed with Chile, which unfortunately led to
economic depression in later years. Legu�a was bitterly criticized for accepting
the compromise.
Overthrow

Statue of Augusto B. Legu�a in Lambayeque

The Great Depression had drained foreign investment in Peru and after eleven years
in power, Legu�a's government was overthrown. The coup, on August 22, 1930, was led
by Luis Miguel S�nchez Cerro in Arequipa. Legu�a was arrested and charged with
misappropriating government funds. He remained in confinement in the Pan�ptico of
Lima, and died at a naval hospital on February 6, 1932.

Reception
Augusto B. Legu�a is depicted as a tyrant in the 1937 novel Pity the Tyrant by
American novelist Hans Otto Storm.[4] American travel writer Richard Halliburton
met Legu�a during his Latin American travels chronicled in New World to Conquer. He
describes Legu�a as a charming and self-effacing "man of the people" who gives a
humorous account of the 1908 coup attempt.

Notes
Kavanagh, Dennis (1998). Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press. pp. 288. ISBN 0-19-280035-3.
"Ministerio de Econom�a y Finanzas - Hist�rico - Relaci�n de Ministros".
www.mef.gob.pe.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augusto-Bernardino-Leguia-y-Salcedo
Hans Otto Storm at The Neglected Books Page, May 29th, 2010