Augusto B. Leguía: Encyclopedia II - Augusto B. Leguía - Second term

Augusto B. Leguía - Second term

In 1919, he again sought the presidency of Peru by trying to succeed José 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 Leguía to succeed Pardo as an interim president. He then proceeded to dissolve Congress and the new parliament elected him constitutional president of Peru.

Leguía changed the Peruvian constitution (which had the longest continuance since 1860), and promulgated a new one in 1920, which was more liberal than than its predecessor and provided more civil guarantees and unlimited reelections. Nevertheless, having himself promulgated the constitution, Augusto B. Leguía almost completely ignored it and the next 10 years of his tenure were marked with a dictatorial style of ruling by suppressing all opposition harshly. Various political opponents of his government were exiled, of which the most prominent was Víctor Raúl 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 best-established political parties. Another important political figure that would emerge during this era was José Carlos Mariátegui, leader of the Communist Party of Peru.

Among the positive initiatives that occurred during Leguía'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 Perú 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 Caquetá rivers. This was officialy solved with the signing of the Treaty of Salomón-Lozano in 1922. (However, the treaty was published after the overthrow of Leguía in 1930.)
• The Tacna-Arica compromise was also signed with Chile, which unfortunately led to economic depression in later years. Leguía was bitterly criticized for accepting the compromise.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Second term", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki