Francisco Morales Bermúdez
Encyclopedia
Francisco Morales Bermúdez Cerruti (born October 4, 1921) is a Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

vian general who came to power in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 in 1975 after deposing his predecessor, General Juan Velasco
Juan Velasco Alvarado
Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado was a left-leaning Peruvian General who ruled Peru from 1968 to 1975 under the title of "President of the Revolutionary Government."- Early life :...

. His grandfather and all his original family were from the old Peruvian department of Tarapacá, which is now part of the Chilean
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 territory. Unable to control the political and economic troubles that the nation faced, he was forced to return power to civilian rule, marking the end of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces, installed by a coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 on October 3, 1968.

Early years

Born in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

 in 1921, he was the son of Army Colonel Remigio Morales Bermúdez and grandson of ex-President Remigio Morales Bermúdez
Remigio Morales Bermúdez
Remigio Morales Bermúdez was president of Peru from 1890 to 1894. His predecessor until 1890 was Andrés Avelino Cáceres, his successor was Justiniano Borgoño in 1894. He died while still in office....

. He received most of his education at Lima's Colegio Inmaculada. In 1939, he was accepted to the Escuela Militar de Chorrillos (Chorrillos Military School
Chorrillos Military School
The Chorrillos Military School is the institution in charge of the undergraduate education of officers of the Peruvian Army. It is located at Chorrillos, Lima, Peru, hence its name. Its current director is Brigade General Walter Martos Ruiz. It was also the alma mater of Manuel Noriega....

). After his graduation, he was an important member of the Centro de Altos Estudios Militares (CAEM).

Political career

He achieved the rank of Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 and was appointed to his first political post in 1968 as minister of finance in the administration of Fernando Belaúnde
Fernando Belaúnde Terry
Fernando Belaúnde Terry was President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms . Deposed by a military coup in 1968, he was re-elected in 1980 after eleven years of military rule...

. Internal problems in government forced him to resign after two months.

In 1968, after Belaúnde had been deposed by a coup, the military government led by Velasco asked him to return to the post of Minister of Finance. In 1974, he resigned again, this time because he was appointed Commander-in-Chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

 of the Peruvian Army
Peruvian Army
The Peruvian Army is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with safeguarding the independence, sovereignty and integrity of national territory on land through military force. Additional missions include assistance in safeguarding internal security, conducting disaster relief operations...

. In 1975, he was appointed to be both Prime Minister and Minister of War.

With Velasco's health deteriorating, Morales Bermúdez led a military junta against General Velasco and took over as President of Peru on August 29, 1975, leading the country through one of its most severe economic crises. He diverged from the socialist-leaning tendencies of first phase (1968–1975) of the Peruvian Revolution, proclaiming a 'Second Phase' that would lead to a return to democracy.

Legacy

The failure of his political and economic reforms was a severe blow to his administration, hampered by constant political pressure from all sides. A Constitutional Assembly was created in 1978, which replaced the 1933 Constitution enacted during Óscar R. Benavides
Óscar R. Benavides
Óscar Raymundo Benavides Larrea , prominent Peruvian field marshal, diplomat and politician, and was the President of Peru from 1914 to 1915 and from 1933 to 1939.- Early life :...

's presidency; he also called for national elections the next year.

After the 1980 National Elections he turned power over to a legally established government, headed by President Fernando Belaúnde
Fernando Belaúnde Terry
Fernando Belaúnde Terry was President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms . Deposed by a military coup in 1968, he was re-elected in 1980 after eleven years of military rule...

.

After his presidency, he kept a relatively low profile in Peruvian politics, making sporadic speeches regarding the situation of the army.

In 1985, he made an unsuccessful run for the presidency, obtaining a fraction of one percent of the vote.

Morales Bermudez is currently being prosecuted by Italian judge Luisianna Figliolia for the presumed forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...

 of 25 Italian citizens in the frame of Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...

, a campaign of political oppression against leftists orchestrated by the right-wing dictatorships of South America in the 1970s.
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