Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti

Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti

Manuel Arturo Odría Amoretti (born November 26, 1897 in Tarma , † February 18, 1974 in Lima ) was a Peruvian general and politician , and between 1948 and 1956 at the head of a military government President of Peru.

Life

Odría was born in Tarma, a city in the central Andes east of Lima ( Junín region ). He graduated from Chorrillos Military School in 1915, top of his class . As a lieutenant colonel in the army, he was one of the heroes of the war with Ecuador in 1941, in which Peru conquered vast disputed areas in the Amazon region. After that he rose to general in a short time.

In 1945 José Luis Bustamante y Rivero became President of Peru with the support of the APRA . After that there was a disagreement between Bustamante and Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre , the founder of APRA. The president dissolved his cabinet, which consisted of APRA members, and replaced it with a government made up of a majority of military personnel. Odría, a staunch opponent of APRA, became Minister for Government and Police. In 1948, Odría and other right-wing forces urged President Bustamante to outlaw APRA. When the president refused, Odría resigned from his cabinet post. On October 29, 1948, he himself took power in the state through a military coup.

Presidency

The reign of Odría was similar to the era of Juan Domingo Perón in Argentina. Odría fought primarily against APRA, doing the oligarchy and the Peruvian right a favor, but like Perón, he pursued a strongly populist course, which earned him allegiance among the poor and the lower class. An economic boom enabled him to distribute social benefits. At the same time, however, civil rights were severely restricted and corruption ruled during his reign. In 1950, Odría formally handed over the presidency to Zenón Noriega Agüero for a short time in order to have himself confirmed by the people as the only candidate in presidential elections. There was a fear in the country that its government would never give up power; therefore his announcement that he would hold general elections in 1956, in which he would not run as a presidential candidate, came as a surprise. In the election, the former President Manuel Prado y Ugarteche came back into office.

The time after 1956

In the next presidential election in 1962, however, Odría ran as a candidate for the right. According to the official final result, which was overshadowed by falsification allegations, Odría was third behind Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre and Fernando Belaúnde Terry with 28% of the votes , but none of the candidates achieved the minimum of one third of the votes for a successful candidate Election, and the decision on the president was left to the Peruvian Congress. It appeared that Odría would be elected president on the basis of a pact with Haya de la Torre, but General Ricardo Pérez Godoy pre-empted the election with a coup and took power with the aim of holding new elections. These took place in 1963; Odría was again third with 26% of the vote; Belaúnde Terry won with 39% and became the new president.

During the reign of Belaúndes, Odría and Haya de la Torre formed an alliance in parliament , the coalition of APRA and UNO; Belaúnde often had to make political concessions. After Belaúndes was ousted by a military coup in 1968 , Odría largely withdrew from political life in Peru.

Manuel Odría died on February 18, 1974 in Lima and was, according to his wishes, buried in the cathedral of his native city.

Awards (selection)

• 1949: Order of Charles III.
• 1953: Special level of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany