Jose Pardo y Barreda

José Simón Pardo y Barreda (Lima, February 24, 1864 - Lima, August 3, 1947) was a Peruvian lawyer, diplomat and politician, who held the Presidency of Peru on two occasions: between 1904 and 1908 and between 1915 and 1919.

Son of Manuel Pardo y Lavalle, leader of the Civil Party and president of Peru. He is the grandson of the politician and writer Felipe Pardo y Aliaga. He studied at the Lima Institute. He was still a teenager when he enlisted in the army during the War of the Pacific, participating in the defense of Lima. He then entered the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, where he graduated as a lawyer. He also graduated with a doctorate in political and administrative sciences.

He was appointed secretary of the legation in Spain and business manager (1888-1890), and was in charge of drafting the Allegation or the defense of Peru in the boundary conflict with Ecuador, whose arbitration had been entrusted to the king of Spain. Back in Peru, he dedicated himself to agricultural activities on his Tumán sugar estate, in Lambayeque.

He was a professor of Diplomatic Law and the History of Peruvian Treaties at the University of San Marcos, he prepared the secondary education reform project, and he was president of the Council of Ministers and minister of Foreign Relations in the government of Manuel Padlock (1903-1904).

He represented a new generation of civilians with renovating desires for the development of Peru. In the 1904 elections he displaced the old Civil Guard and ran for president, winning. During this first government (1904-1908) he firmly and effectively supported public education, culture and national defense.

The government of José Pardo was characterized by a solid foreign policy that was firmly based on the non-cession of national territories; for respect for the law and the Constitution; for being a zealous guardian of the Public Treasury and for the initiation, in his first period, of an intelligent education policy.

After his government ended, he traveled to Europe. He returned to Peru in 1914 and was named rector of the University of San Marcos. He then ran again for the presidency of Peru, which he won again. His second government (1915-1919) was characterized by political and social violence, a symptom of the exhaustion of civilism as a political option and of the world crisis derived from the First World War.

After being overthrown by Augusto Leguía, he was banished to New York. He fell from power, victim of the unbridled ambition of those who took him by force, to open the way for the most reprehensible dictatorship that has overshadowed the country. He went to Europe and settled in Biarritz (France), until he returned to the country in 1944. Peru encouraged by a favorable public opinion, receiving tributes that made him experience intense satisfaction, being recognized as one of the most skilful statesmen and patriots that Peru has ever had. Three years later he died in Lima.

Birth and family

Born in Lima as the third of the ten children of one of the main families of Peru, owners of the Hacienda Tumán and of aristocratic lineage, for being a descendant of the conquistador Jerónimo de Aliaga.

His father was the businessman Manuel Pardo y Lavalle (later mayor of Lima, leader of the Civil Party and president of Peru), son of the prominent poet and writer Felipe Pardo y Aliaga, who was also Minister of Relations Exteriors by Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco and Ramón Castilla.

His mother was Mariana Barreda y Osma, daughter of wealthy businessman Felipe Barreda y Aguilar, nicknamed "the man of the Five Million", through whom he was related to various political personalities.

His brothers included Felipe Pardo y Barreda, 5th Marquis of Fuente Hermosa de Miranda, and the mining engineer Juan Pardo y Barreda, who was President of the Chamber of Deputies.

He was also the cousin of Felipe de Osma y Pardo, Pedro de Osma y Pardo and José de la Riva-Agüero y Osma, Marquis of Montealegre de Aulestia; and nephew of José Antonio de Lavalle and Enrique Barreda y Osma. It is because of these family relationships that Manuel González Prada would ironize years later:

"A José Pardo and Barreda in the Presidency, an Enrique de la Riva Agüero in the head of the cabinet, a Felipe de Osma and Pardo in the Supreme Court, a Pedro de Osma and Pardo in the municipal office, a José Antonio de Lavalle and Pardo in a prosecutor's office, announce to a Felipe Pardo and Barreda in the United States Legation, to a Juan Pardo and Barreda in the other Congress.

His father was assassinated in 1878 when he was president of the Senate, although his family managed to rebuild their fortunes.

Studies

José Pardo studied school at the Institute of Lima under the direction of German professors. At that time the war with Chile broke out and Lima was besieged by enemy forces. The brothers Felipe, Juan and José Pardo enlisted in the army. José Pardo was then 16 years old and became a corporal, but due to illness he had to retire from the army and march to Jauja. His brothers Felipe and Juan intervened in the battle of Miraflores.

When the Peruvian capital was occupied by Chilean troops, in 1881 he entered the Faculty of Letters of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, enrolling in the faculties of Letters and Jurisprudence. He obtained the degrees of Bachelor (1882) and Bachelor of Letters (1883); then those of bachelor (1884), graduate (1885) and doctor in Political and Administrative Sciences with the thesis on the "Principles that Private International Law establishes to resolve conflicts of Laws in matters of marriage" (1885). He also graduated with a bachelor's degree in Jurisprudence (1885) and finally qualified as a lawyer in 1886. Immediately afterwards, he joined the ranks of the Civil Party that his father had founded, eventually becoming one of the leading of the.

Diplomatic career

In 1888, under the government of General Andrés Avelino Cáceres, he was appointed First Class Secretary of the Peruvian Legation in Spain, having to assume the functions of Chargé d'Affaires, from July 2, 1888 to October 16, 1890, as well as the defense of Peru during the border conflict with Ecuador, whose arbitration was entrusted to the Spanish Crown. On this occasion, he was responsible for drafting Peru's first Allegation in three volumes, an important legal study that has since been a fundamental supporting document for the Peruvian position on this boundary issue. The allegation presented by José Pardo demonstrated that its author possessed a vast domain of history, geography and international law. Such foundations presaged that the triumph of Peru was certain, which decided Ecuador to illegally and violently repudiate the arbitration jurisdiction to which it had submitted. The end of our question of limits was the signing of the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro between the foreign ministers of Peru and Ecuador. The arbitration trial was on hold when José Pardo submitted his resignation from the diplomatic position that he had carried out with such success. Such was the brilliant performance accomplished, by assuming the legal defense of our legitimate interests until the date it was accepted by the government on October 16, 1890.

Businessman and university professor

Back in Peru in 1890, Pardo abandoned his diplomatic career to devote himself to managing his Tumán sugar estate in Chiclayo. He was a founding member of the La Unión de Chiclayo club. In Lima he ventured into the construction business by promoting the urbanization of the La Victoria district and founded a weaving factory in Vitarte, which gave work to a large number of workers, the same ones who would lead social struggles in the following century. He was editor of the bulletin of the National Society of Agriculture until July 1900 and in November of that year, in a session of the General Meeting of the Society of Industries, he was elected member and delegate to the Technical Institute.

In 1891 he was appointed a member of the Geographical Society of Lima. In 1900 the University of San Marcos required him for the Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences, conferring him the chairs of Diplomatic Law and the History of Treaties of Peru, which he held until 1903. He was also a representative of the University before the Superior Council of Instruction Pública (1901-1903), which prepared the Secondary Education Reform Law that would be approved in 1904.

Political

José Pardo along with President Manuel Candamo, when Pardo was head of Cabinet and Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1903.

Under the government of Manuel Candamo (the second civilista government after Manuel Pardo) he was appointed Minister of Foreign Relations, a position he held from September 8, 1903 to May 14, 1904; while Augusto B. Leguía, another young civilian, held the Ministry of Finance. But Candamo did not finish his four-year presidential term as he died eight months after assuming command, on May 7, 1904, victim of illness.

José Pardo married his first cousin Carmen Heeren Barreda in the Church of Santa Teresa on January 29, 1900. The union was blessed by the apostolic delegate Monsignor Gasparri. Later, having become the leader of the Civil Party, he became the constitutional president of Peru on two occasions:

• First Government (1904 to 1908).
• Second government (1915 to 1919).

1904 Election

After Candamo's death, the second vice president Serapio Calderón assumed the presidency, as the first vice president, Lino Alarco, had also died. It was up to Serapio to call new presidential elections, and in them two options were presented:

• The ruling Civil Party, ally with the Constitutional or Cacerista Party, presented as a candidate José Pardo and Barreda, who belongs to the youth and reformist sector of civilism, who rejected the old president of the Civil Party, Isaac Alzamora.
• The Democratic Party, in alliance with the Liberal Party, launched the candidacy of the old leader Nicolás de Piérola, former president of Peru.

Piérola, after giving a series of vibrant speeches, withdrew shortly before the elections, citing a lack of guarantees. José Pardo was then overwhelmingly elected president.

First Government (1904-1908)

José Pardo and Barreda during his first government in 1906.

José Pardo was 40 years old when he assumed the presidency, on September 24, 1904. He was a ruler who respected the law, institutions and freedoms, but his policy was to make a party government and not a national government.

During this government there was wide freedom of the press. The newspapers El Liberal, run by Augusto Durand, and La Prensa, founded in 1903 by Pedro de Osma and directed since 1905 by Alberto Ulloa Cisneros, fiery and combative, opposed the government. journalist. But this opposition was made within the frameworks allowed by law, without falling into excesses. For this reason, Pardo was able to make some trips to the provinces, which until then had not been done by any democratically elected president.

Pardo had three government cabinets, the first being the longest, chaired by Augusto B. Leguía, until July 1907, when he resigned to prepare his presidential candidacy. The second cabinet, chaired by Agustín Tovar Aguilar, lasted only from August to October 1907; and the third and last, chaired by Carlos Washburn, was less than a year. During this period the fights increased in the parliament between the civil party and the democratic and liberal parties.

The following are the important works and events of this government.

Economic aspect

Under the efforts of Minister of Finance Augusto B. Leguía, important economic reforms were carried out.

• National credit was reopened to foreign markets, with the approval of the Congress of a loan of 600 000 pounds, carried out in 1905 with the German Trasatlantic Bank. After the success of this first loan, another one was to be held for three million pounds, for the construction of railways, but this time there was a tenacious parliamentary opposition.
• The Deposits and Consignments Fund was established, an institution responsible for free custody of the values whose deposit was ordered or accepted by the Judiciary or other public offices.
• The contract was renewed with the National Courage Company, charged with the collection of contributions or taxes, but new conditions were adjusted to lower the onerous commissions that the company was carrying.
• The operations of the National Salinera Company, the successor of a previous company charged with raising the salt tax (1906).
• An arrangement was signed with the Peruvian Corporation, the railway company, which promised to continue the extension of railway lines.
• The customs system was improved to increase revenue from the export of guano and cotton.
• A new regulation was issued for the High Court of Accounts (entity responsible for reviewing tax accounts.

Educational aspect

The first government of José Pardo was characterized by giving a great boost to education. It was the most important effort made in this regard since the beginning of the Republic. Primary instruction in Peru, according to the Law of 1876, issued by Manuel Pardo, was in the hands of the municipalities. José Pardo, under the management of his Minister of Justice and Instruction Jorge Polar (succeeded later by Carlos Washburn), decided to radically change this situation.

• The educational system was reformed by Act No. 162 of 5 December 1905. Primary education became dependent on the central government. It was also provided that it was compulsory and free of charge and that there was even a mixed elementary school in haciendas, villages and mines as in every village with more than two hundred inhabitants.
• Numerous school premises were built in Lima and the rest of the country, equipped with teaching materials acquired in Europe. By assuming Pardo the government there were less than 1500 schools with about 100,000 students; by leaving power, there were about 2,700 schools that were attended by 170 000 students.
• The teachers' career was also encouraged. The Normal School of Males was founded for the training of primary teachers, which was later called the National Pedagogical Institute, the base of the later Higher Normal School, today National University of Education Enrique Guzmán and Valle, La Cantuta.
• She reorganized the Normal School of Women.
• On September 24, 1905 he inaugurated the School of Art and Crafts of Lima, whose direction Pedro Paulet assumed. It is the current Instituto Superior Tecnológico Público José Pardo.
• He established night schools for workers in the most important capitals of departments, as well as commercial schools and industrial schools, the latter preferably in the Amazon region.
• At the administrative level, the Directorate-General for Instruction was established under the authority of inspectors responsible for monitoring throughout the Republic. The Higher Council for Education was at the centre of that body, which was merely consultative.

Cultural aspect

• The Historical Institute of Peru, the current National Academy of History, was founded to encourage research into Peruvian historical events. The Palace of the Exhibition was assigned as a venue.
• The National Academy of Music was founded.
• The National Museum of History was founded, with its incaic, colonial and republican sections, under the direction of German archaeologist Max Uhle.
• The Ateneo de Lima was founded.
• In universities such as San Marcos de Lima and San Antonio de Abad del Cuzco, the study of anthropology was passed, in the same way that female students were allowed to enter their classrooms.

Military Defense

Cruise Grauduring the official tests of September 20, 1906 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Pardo was concerned about national defense, continuing the work begun by Piérola, something that was urgently needed in the face of worsening border conflicts with neighboring nations.

• In 1905 the contract with the French Military Mission was renewed to prepare and renew the Army.
• The High School of War was founded to form staff officers.
• The veterinary service was established, complementing the cavalry.
• The Army established the topography, engineering and backing services (the latter is the purchase, breeding and care of the horses destined to the army).
• The bodies of Artillery of Costa and Artillery of Campaign were created.
• The territory of the country was divided into four military zones: North, Central, South and East.
• Battery materials were acquired and a fortification plan for Lima and Callao was given.
• The Army General Intendence was created.
• The Peruvian Navy was repotted. In 1905 the transport was purchased Iquitos. And on the basis of a popular erogation (which gave a million suns) and a loan, the light cruises were ordered to be built in the English arsenals. Admiral Grau and Colonel Bolognesi, each of which moved more than 3200 tons. The arrival at Callao of these ships, in August 1907, produced a burst of patriotic joy throughout the country. These ships were the best exponents of the Peruvian Navy, until in the 1950s they were replaced by others who kept their names. It also reinforced the Amazonian flotilla with four patrol boats.

Start of social legislation

In 1904, and in view of the growing labor unrest, the government commissioned the distinguished jurist José Matías Manzanilla to prepare a labor legislation project, which has generally been called Social Legislation. In his message to Congress in 1905, Pardo made these projects known, but after some debates his approval was postponed and only in 1911 was one of them approved, referring to compensation for work accidents.

International look

With regard to foreign policy, the most critical issues were border issues with neighboring countries.

The dispute with Brazil derived from the control of Alto Yurúa and Alto Purús (in the non-delimited area of the common border), ended in an armed clash in the area of the Amuenya river on December 4, 1904, which This forced the extension of the provisional solution agreed upon in June of that year, the so-called modus vivendi policy, which contemplated neutralization in the areas of the rivers in dispute and a joint government. This solution was extended every six months, until a definitive boundary treaty was signed in 1909, already in the next government.

The lawsuit with Ecuador was then awaiting arbitration by the King of Spain, however Ecuadorian penetration into Peruvian territory through the Napo River area had continued, which produced the armed incident at Torres Causana in July 1904, months before Pardo took power. In 1905, the royal commissioner Ramón Menéndez Pidal, representative of the King of Spain, arrived in Quito, who explained to the representatives of Ecuador and Peru that in order to reach a conciliatory situation, both countries had to withdraw their military garrisons from Napo. The withdrawal of troops did not mean the abandonment of the possessions of either party. Ecuador withdrew its military garrisons that it had in Aguarico and took them to Quito, Peru did the same with those that it had in Torres Causana, which transferred them to Iquitos. Once that problem was solved, the presentation of the parties' arguments before the King of Spain continued. The Peruvian argument was in charge of commissioners Mariano H. Cornejo and Felipe de Osma, in four volumes and seven documents.

With Bolivia, he was airing the question of limits to the arbitration of the President of the Argentine Republic. The Peruvian plea was presented by the internationalist Víctor M. Maúrtua, a plea that consists of two volumes and 12 documents (1906). However, some incidents did not stop taking place on the border. The occupation of the mouth of the Heath River by Bolivian troops under the command of General José Manuel Pando in May 1906, motivated the protest of Peru.

As for Colombia, there was a dispute over the jungle territory between the Putumayo and Caquetá rivers, where the rubber tappers worked, the most famous being the Peruvian Julio C. Arana. Peru, eager to settle its dispute with that country, sent a legation to Bogotá, headed by Hernán Velarde, who signed a series of agreements with Clímaco Calderón and Luis Tanco Argáez: a treaty by which the boundary dispute was submitted to arbitration of the Supreme Pontiff (September 12, 1905) and an agreement of status quo and modus vivendi in the disputed region of Putumayo, leaving this river as the provisional limit. Colombia would occupy the northern zone of said river and Peru the southern zone; both promised not to make advances to the opposite side, while the definitive solution was aired. In 1906, a new modus vivendi agreement was signed in Lima for the area in dispute, the same one that the following year would be unilaterally terminated by Colombia, which once again exercised its jurisdiction over the Putumayo. As a consequence of this, there were a series of armed incidents between Peruvians and Colombians in that area in 1908.

With Chile the situation was equally tense. This republic illegally retained the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica, because according to the Treaty of Ancón (which put an end to the Pacific War in 1883), in 1894 it had to call a plebiscite in them so that its inhabitants decided to return to Peru or remain in Peru. Chili. However, the Chilean government not only extended the holding of such a plebiscite indefinitely, but since 1900 it intensified a severe policy of "Chileanization" against the Peruvians of Tacna and Arica, as well as those who resided in Tarapacá, which provoked the protest of the Peruvian government. For this reason, diplomatic relations between the two countries had been broken since 1901. In October 1904, shortly after Pardo's government began, Chile and Bolivia signed the 1904 Treaty, which settled peace between the two nations. The Peruvian Foreign Ministry protested to its Chilean counterpart regarding some clauses of said treaty, regarding the demarcation of the Bolivian-Chilean border and the construction of the railway between Arica and La Paz, since they directly affected the interests of Peru (because legally, Peru was still the lord and owner of Tacna and Arica, while Chile was only the holder and occupier). In any case, shortly after diplomatic relations between Peru and Chile were resumed. The same ones that would be broken again, already during the following government, as a result of the so-called "Crown Incident" (1909).

Material progress

One of the innovations in the Limeño public transport was the use of the electric tram, which replaced the animal traction. In this caricature that ironizes the end of the government of José Pardo and Barreda in 1908, the "tramroad" is used as a political metaphor.

• The construction of the railroads ordered by the law of March 30, 1904 was sought, preferring to the extension of the line from Sicuani to Cuzco, and from La Oroya to Huancayo. But the project of building a railway to the Amazon region of Ucayali was not approved by Congress. On the other hand, other short tracks were built, so that by 1908, the total number of railroads in the country was 2153 km.
• During this period the city Lima received the impulse of progress and expansion, thanks to the work of its mayor, Federico Elguera. The capital then had 140 884 inhabitants, the main avenue being La Colmena (now Avenida Nicolás de Piérola), although it was not yet completed. Some arrangements were made at Plaza de Armas and Plaza Bolivar. The new transport was the electric tram, opened in May 1906. The first cars also arrived.
• On November 5, 1905 the monument was inaugurated in tribute to Colonel Francisco Bolognesi in the square of his name, ceremony attended by the Argentine colonel Roque Sáenz Peña, former subordinate of Bolognesi in the defense of Arica (and that in 1910 he became president of his country). The sculpture of the hero, the work of the Catalan sculptor Agustín Querol, would be replaced by another in the 1950s.
• As a tribute to the heroes who had fallen in the war with Chile, the Heroes' Cripta was built at the Lima General Cemetery (now Cemetery Master Presbyter).

Other works

• By law of October 6, 1906 the creation of the Peruvian company of Vapores was arranged, and the construction and exploitation of a floating dam in the port of Callao, in order to promote the development of the merchant marine.
• By law No. 201 of September 4, 1906 the department of San Martín was created, which until then was part of the department of Loreto.
• The Fluvial Ways Board was created to encourage exploration in the jungle. In this field it is worth highlighting the performance of Colonel Pedro Portillo, Prefect of Loreto between 1901 and 1904, and Minister of Public Works from 1906 to 1908. We must also mention Manuel Mesones Muro, who in 1902 found the shortest step between the jungle and the coast through Lambayeque and Cajamarca.

After completing his term and after the election of Augusto B. Leguía as his successor, Pardo handed over power to him on September 24, 1908 and undertook a trip to Europe that meant his departure from the country for six years.

1915 Election

Back in Peru, Pardo was elected rector of the University of San Marcos, which he took office on November 30, 1914, but which he served for only one year, since in 1915 he was designated as a candidate for the presidency by a Convention of the civilista, liberal and constitutional parties, which General Oscar R. Benavides, then de facto ruler after the coup d'état of 1914, called.), for the Democratic Party. Once the elections were held, Pardo obtained 131,289 votes compared to 13,151 for his opponent.

Second Government (1915-1919)

Pardo Barreda in his second government in 1918.

On 18 August 1915 José Pardo assumed for the second time the presidency of the Republic. Constitutional normality returned to the country after a brief military-government bracket.

Pardo was respectful of public laws and freedoms. He decreed a political amnesty and tried to make a government of concord and national union. But he was unable to counter the exacerbated opposition they had made from Congress and the press. The most violent opposition came from the newspaper Time, founded in 1916; there they collaborated young and militant journalists such as José Carlos Mariátegui and César Falcón, who joined the popular demands.

Two crimes dismayed the population and further exacerbated the spirits against the government. On September 25, 1915, Commander Juan Gerardo Ferreccio was assassinated by his own troops in Huaraz, where he had been sent to suppress a rebellion. On March 4, 1917, parliamentarian Rafael Grau (son of the hero of Angamos) was assassinated. in Palcaro, near Abancay, in the middle of a brawl unleashed between local political factions. Rafael Grau was an opponent of the government, for which reason Pardo was directly accused of being the mastermind of the crime, an accusation that was never proven.

In the southern Andean region, the abuses of the ranchers and gamonals on the native and peasant population motivated many uprisings of indigenous people, such as the one headed by Rumi Maqui in 1915.

The opposition to the government became even more acute due to the economic crisis derived from the First World War; This crisis caused discomfort among the working class, workers and employees, given the shortage of basic necessities and the rise in prices. Numerous strikes and stoppages broke out, the most notable of which would be that of January 1919 for the 8-hour work day.

The following are the important works and events of the second government of José Pardo.

Effects of the Great War

Pardo had to face the consequences of World War I. Within the framework of this conflagration, a particularly difficult moment was the sinking in Spanish waters of the Peruvian vessel "Lorthon" by German submarines; Peru claimed the government of Berlin and, not obtaining satisfactory explanations, broke relations with the German Empire. Peru allied itself with the United States although it avoided declaring war on Germany.

There was a fleeting sensation of economic well-being due to the global situation: exports of sugar, cotton, wool, oil and copper increased. For this reason, agro-industrial crops on the coast intensified, which benefited a small group of landowners, but on the other hand, the cultivation of food products decreased considerably, resulting in shortages and rising prices to the detriment of the popular classes, which naturally it originated a great social unrest, represented in strikes and work stoppages.

The fight for the 8-hour work day

The First World War worsened the economic condition of the working class and prepared the field for the development of union action. The successive strikes that took place during the Pardo government had as a demand the lowering of subsistence, the implementation of the "8-hour work day", among other labor demands.

A general strike took place in Lima and Callao on January 13, 14 and 15, 1919, in favor of the 8-hour day. The Minister of Public Works Manuel Vinelli pleaded with President Pardo for the issuance of the decree that would establish the 8-hour day, the only requirement demanded by the workers to end the strike. The decree was issued on January 15, 1919, granting such a benefit to workers in workshops and State dependencies; In private workshops or establishments, employers and workers should agree on the working hours, but if no agreement is reached, the 8-hour day will apply. This decree was considered a great triumph by the workers.

As the main actors in the general strike of January 1919, mention should be made of the trade unionists Nicolás Gutarra, Julio Portocarrero and Julio Tataje; The Federation of Students of Peru (FEP) also supported the workers and one of its delegates was a young university student from Trujillo, who from then on would have a great figure in the country's political life: Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre.

On May 27, 1919, another great strike of workers and employees began, this time in favor of lowering the cost of subsistence. It lasted until June 2 in Lima and until June 5 in Callao. He was harshly repressed by law enforcement. There were several deaths and injuries, and many were taken to the Fronton, accused of participating in the looting and burning.

Rumi Maqui's Rebellion

At that time, gamonalismo was booming, a system of exploitation of indigenous peasants on haciendas, especially in the southern Andes of Peru. These haciendas were characterized by their low productivity, their low profitability, the waste of labor force and the cultural exclusion of their farm laborers, who remained in the most impoverished poverty. The gamonales or landowners held considerable local power (many became senators, deputies, mayors and prefects) and had small armed contingents. As the international price of wool increased, the gamonales expanded their cattle ranches at the expense of the lands of the indigenous communities and reduced many peasants to the status of serfs. All of this, added to the indifference or complicity of the governments in power, caused the outbreak of many indigenous rebellions, one of which was led in 1915 by a cavalry sergeant major, Teodomiro Gutiérrez Cuevas, better known as Rumi Maqui (Quechua: stone hand). Rumi Maqui rose up with a group of indigenous people from Huancané and Azángaro, but was defeated and arrested in 1916. He was accused of treason and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Although his enemies (the gamonales) accused him of having wanted to divide part of the national territory to cede it to Bolivia, as well as wanting to reinstate the Tahuantinsuyo, in reality Rumi Maqui had only claimed freedom and equal rights for the indigenous. However, this rebellion was not entirely unsuccessful because at least it made the government take a little more interest in the problems of the indigenous people.

Severance of consular relations with Chile

Photograph by the beginning of the centuryXX., which shows tacneños children forced to give respect to Chilean patriotic symbols.

Diplomatic relations with Chile continued to be interrupted as a result of the conflict generated by the final fate of the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica, which had been in Chilean power since the 1879-1883 war. At the end of the First World War, the government and the entire Peruvian nation were seduced by the principles of international justice proclaimed by US President Woodrow Wilson, one of which was the right of self-determination of peoples. Many in Peru believed that Tacna, Arica and, eventually, Tarapacá could be recovered under the protection of this principle. The Peruvian government then intensified its campaign to recover those provinces; In response, the Chilean government accentuated its Chileanization policy on them. Many Peruvians were expelled from these provinces and from Antofagasta, and many others were forcibly enlisted in the Chilean army. This situation worsened with the attack on the residence of the Peruvian consul in Iquique, at the hands of Chilean mobs. The Peruvian Foreign Ministry protested energetically and withdrew all its consuls from Chilean territory. The break in relations with Chile thus became complete (November 25, 1918), with serious damage to the economic interests of both nations.

The Wilsonian principles did not contribute anything to the solution of the thorny Question of the Pacific. This would only be liquidated in the final stretch of the Oncenio de Leguía, under the formula imposed by Chile: retention of Arica and return of Tacna (1929).

The problem of La Brea and Pariñas

The government also showed attention to solving the thorny problem of La Brea and Pariñas. In 1916 the London Pacific Petroleum Company sold the leasing rights of said oil field to the International Petroleum Company (IPC) dependent on Standard Oil of New Jersey, United States. The Chamber of Deputies approved a law that authorized the State to submit the matter to the arbitration jurisdiction of the International Court of The Hague (December 26, 1918).

Other important works and events

• In addition to the famous decree of the establishment of the day of the 8 hours of work (15 January 1919), Pardo gave other laws of a social nature, derived from the projects of Manzanilla that he had presented in his first government. We mention two of them:
  • Act No. 2851 of 25 November 1918 regulating the work of women and minors.
  • Act No. 3010 of 26 December 1918 establishing compulsory Sunday rest extended to civic parties and on the first day of political elections.
• It helped alleviate the economic crisis with the reorganization of the Public Treasury in 1916 and 1917, the suppression of the fiscal bills still circulating, the payment of the internal debt and the revaluation of the Peruvian pound.
• Freedom of worship was established by Act No. 2193 of 11 November 1915, which made the respective constitutional amendment. The Catholic religion was further recognized as the State religion, but the part of article 4.o of the current Constitution was erased (the one of 1860) where it said that "the public exercise of any other is not permitted". That is, since then, the exercise of other religions, outside the Catholic one, was allowed.
• In the cultural field the Geographical Society of Lima was entrusted with the formation of a geographical atlas; the National School of Fine Arts of Lima was founded; and the National Archive was ordered.
• It established the penal colony of the island of El Frontón, located in front of Callao, with capacity for two hundred prisoners.
• The country was accelerated. The car proliferated and the first roads were built. Between August and September 1915, a plane struck the sky of Arequipa and then Lima. The capital and its spas grew.
• The railway from Cuzco was built to Santa Ana and from Lima to Lurín. Other railroads were completed.
• The Peruvian Vapores Company was reorganized, which was created in its first government.
• As for defence, there was no new development in failing the projects created by the Defence Fund and the National Defence Council. However, the Military Aviation School (which was inaugurated at the end of 1919) was established; Peruvian pilots were trained in the Argentine school of El Palomar and barracks were built in various parts of the country.
• Nor was there any advances in education when the Congress did not approve the presidential request to repeal Act No. 2094 limiting State action in the direction of primary education.

End of Pardo's second government

José Pardo and Barreda.

Next to the end of his term, Pardo called for elections. By the Civil Party (government) appeared Ántero Aspíllaga, rich maker of the north, with the consent of Pardo. As an opposition candidate Augusto B. Leguía and Salcedo, a personal enemy of Pardo, was presented and supported by a political group to which he gave his name. The elections, which were not very clean, gave Leguía the winner, but in the official account he was canceled numerous votes. In the face of the danger that the elections would be overturned and that they moved to Congress, where the civilists had a majority, Leguía and their supporters gave a coup d'etat, with the support of the military garrison of Lima. It was July 4, 1919.

For many years José Pardo and Barreda could be considered the prototype of the lucky man. He had abomination, fortune, good presence, social success, the most prominent public life. It was notorious that life had been with him more favorable than with his illustrious father who only ruled Peru in four stormy years, in the midst of a tremendous economic and labor crisis, to fall vilibly killed only two years later. In a country where there have been so many premature deaths, so many bad vocations, so many interrupted efforts, José Pardo and Barreda seemed, until 1918, a symbol of good luck. And in him there was nothing impulsive or neurotic, exaggerated, dishonest, lack of proportion or harmony. And yet... When he selected his successor in 1908, he sowed the seed of his tragedy. It was Augusto B. Leguía, whom he chose as a cabinet colleague, as a favorite friend and as a presidential candidate, who threw him out of power in 1919.

Jorge Basadre

For his part, Manuel González Prada had a very low opinion of Pardo and this is how he expresses it openly in one of his works:

Don José Pardo highlights an ineffably delicious thing — ignorance. It passes through the Institute of Lima and the University of San Marcos without acquiring a bathroom of knowledge, like the black zambulle in the water without wet the helmet. His programs, his speeches, his messages, his decrees, finally, all his documents spoken and written seem the work conceived by an Amanuense and written by a Governor of Ninaca... Vulgar as a student, vulgar as Secretary of Law, vulgar as a professor, vulgar as Minister of Foreign Affairs, vulgar as President of the Republic, don José Pardo came to the end of his period without having left a single mark to reveal the transit of a superior man or, even, well-meaning. He was not a spokesman of national interests, but a more inhumane and more odious class agent, the business class...

Manuel González Prada

Pardo was banished to New York. Exiled with his family in Europe, he settled in the castle Caradoc, Biarritz, France, where he resided until 1944 when he returned to Peru. Three years later he died in Miraflores and was buried in the Master Presbyter Cemetery.

Offspring

Tomb of José Pardo and Barreda in a family mausoleum in Cemetery Master Presbyter.

On January 29, 1900, he married his cousin Carmen Heeren y Barreda (Lima, 1879-Barcelona, 1949), daughter of the German Oscar Heeren, architect who built Quinta Heeren in 1880, and Carmen Barreda y Osma. The couple had seven children:

• Manuel Pardo Heeren (1900-?)
• José Pardo Heeren, VI Marquis de Fuente Hermosa de Miranda (1903-2001), married to Doris Paredes Delboy.
• Felipe Pardo Heeren (1904-1909).
• Enrique Pardo Heeren (1905-1988), first married to Rosario Sosa Pardo de Zela, since 1976 Marquesa de Herrera and Vallehermoso, and then Rita Tennant.
• Carmen Pardo Heeren (1908-?), married to Manuel de Escandón and Salamanca, IV Marqués de Villavieja.
• Juan Pardo Heeren (1910-1967), married to Guadalupe Escandón de Landa.
• Óscar Pardo Heeren (1914-1980), married to Jacqueline Marie du Mesnil de Maricourt.

Written work

During his last exile he finished writing a book aimed at vindicating the governmental work of his father, President Manuel Pardo: History of the “secret” treaty of defensive alliance between Peru and Bolivia.