The 1948 Peruvian coup d'état took place on October 27, 1948, headed by general Manuel A. Odría in Arequipa,[1] referred to by him as the "Restorative Revolution" (Spanish: Revolución Restauradora), against the government José Luis Bustamante y Rivero. The military coup gave way to a period of almost twenty months in which the deposed president was prosecuted, a state of emergency was declared throughout the country, and the national congress was dissolved.[2]
Bustamante's government had to face difficult political and social situations, such as the predominance of APRA in Congress and the subsequent confrontation between executive and legislative, and the murder allegedly at the hands of Apristas of the director of the newspaper La Prensa, Francisco Graña Garland [es]. The disagreements between the conservative and military sectors with the government due to the refusal to distance itself from APRA caused the crisis to escalate until the resignation of the cabinet chaired by Julio Ernesto Portugal [es].[2]
The turning point for the export oligarchy and the anti-APRA sectors[1] to begin the path to taking power through a coup d'état occurred on October 3, 1948, with the uprising of the sailors in Callao, encouraged by the APRA and related soldiers.[2]
Coup
On October 27, 1948, Manuel A. Odría, who had been Minister of Government and Police in the Bustamante y Rivero government, revolted at the head of the Arequipa garrison. He called his subversive act the "Restorative Revolution."[2] A visibly nervous Odría read his Manifesto to the Nation on Radio Continental, in which he declared the following:
The revolution that broke out in Arequipa is for a just, noble and patriotic cause: to save the armed institutes that are the basis of national defence; rebuild democratic life, reestablish the rule of the Constitution and, finally, end the period of misery and hunger that overwhelms our people.
— Manuel A. Odría
The other garrisons in the country, such as Cuzco and those in the north of the country, hesitated to join the movement initiated in Arequipa, but its triumph was decided when the garrison at Lima, under the command of General Zenón Noriega, joined Odría. The coup d'état culminated successfully with the deportation of President Bustamante to Buenos Aires. Noriega assumed interim power, as President of the Military Junta, until the arrival of Odría on October 29, 1948.
See also
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