Philip Salaverry

Felipe Santiago Salaverry del Solar (Lima, May 3, 1806 - Arequipa, February 18, 1836) was a Peruvian soldier and politician, the youngest president Peru had and the youngest in dying. He was a very enlightened soldier, with a fondness for reading and a talent for writing. In 1835 he rebelled against President Luis José de Orbegoso and seized power. He ruled for just one year, from February 1835 to February 1836. He led his country against the Bolivian invasion. Defeated and captured by Andrés de Santa Cruz, he died shot, after a summary process against him.

Biography

Early Years

Son of Felipe Santiago Salaverry y Allende, Basque official, native of Guipúzcoa, Accountant of the Royal Tobacco Income of Arequipa; and the Lima lady Micaela del Solar y Duque de Estrada. He studied Latin grammar at the University of San Marcos (1817) and rhetoric and Latin at the Real Convictorio de San Carlos (1818-1819). As an intern he studied mathematics, logic and music at the Colegio de San Fernando (1820). Those had become discussion centers for emancipatory ideas.

At the end of 1820, when he was only fourteen years old, he ran away from his parents' house and appeared before José de San Martín at the Huaura headquarters, along with Juan Antonio Pezet. He therefore began his military career in the patriotic army at a very young age, where he showed courage and a lot of audacity, which became the beginning of a dizzying military career that would take him to the top with a precocity that for many was amazing.

Military career

He entered the “Numancia” battalion as a cadet and served under the orders of General Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales in the second campaign in the central highlands. He then stood out in the first siege of Callao and was promoted to second lieutenant on January 15, 1822.

He was assigned to the No. 1 battalion of the Peruvian Legion and, already with the rank of second lieutenant, attended the adverse battles of Torata and Moquegua, during the first expedition to intermediate ports (1823).

Promoted to captain, he participated in the battles of Junín and Ayacucho (1824), and later participated in the operations led by Marshal Antonio José de Sucre in Upper Peru, appearing in the capture of Potosí.

He returned to Lima in 1825 and was assigned as a sergeant major to guard the headquarters of the Grenadiers No. 9 battalion, where he had to ward off a mutiny led by Lieutenant Colonel Alejandro Huavique. He himself fought saber with the rebel officer and killed him to the astonishment of his troops (March 23, 1828). He then received the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 1829 he was appointed aide-de-camp to President José de La Mar, accompanying him during the war against Gran Colombia. He attended the actions of Saraguro (February 13) and Portete de Tarqui (February 27). Detached to the Piura headquarters, he was taken prisoner when La Mar was overthrown. Released, he remained in Piura and made himself known as a supporter of the deposed president; then he traveled to Lima, determined to distance himself from politics, but President Agustín Gamarra offered him the sub-prefecture and the military command of Tacna in 1831. Salaverry accepted and left for Tacna, where he married Doña Juana Pérez.

After some time, he left José Rosa Ara as interim governor of Tacna and traveled to Lima to request his retirement. His desire was to dedicate himself fully to agriculture. But his plans were thwarted by his enemies and he was accused of conspiracy. Arrested, he was sentenced to confinement in the village of Huallaga, near Marañón, in the department of Amazonas (July 26, 1833). He did not take long to convince his guardians to let him go free, and together with a handful of his supporters he marched to Chachapoyas where he deposed the prefect, thus ignoring the Gamarra government. But before the government forces approached, he was abandoned by his own and captured, being taken in chains to Cajamarca. He again convinced his captors to release him and made a new pronouncement on October 26.

He marched to Trujillo and in the Garita de Moche (current port of Salaverry) he faced the government forces commanded by General Juan Francisco de Vidal, being defeated. He then fled north and took refuge in the Suipiro hacienda, in Paita. However, he was recognized and handed over to Vidal. He embarked with him bound for Guayaquil, but once again he convinced the custodians of him and made the ship divert its course.

He disembarked on the beaches of Lambayeque, immediately moving to Trujillo, in February 1834. By then, the provisional government of Luis José de Orbegoso had been reestablished in Lima, after the coup attempt by the gamarristas led by Pedro Bermúdez, who they retreated to the mountains. Salaverry supported Orbegoso and led a mobilization against the Trujillo authorities, whose loyalty to the government was distrusted. He assumed the position of commanding general of the department of La Libertad and later joined the Orbegosista forces that in the department of Junín operated against the rebels. A famous saying of his dates back to that time, when he asked the president for a promotion: "Make me a colonel and I'll do the rest". Indeed, he obtained the rank of colonel (March 8, 1834); then he participated in the battle of Huaylacucho and in the "embrace of Maquinhuayo", which ended the civil war (April 1834).

Orbegoso awarded him promotion to Brigadier General (June 9, 1834). Salaverry was then 28 years old and placed himself in an expectant position within the upper echelons of military power in the 1830s. Such power lay in the close collaboration he had with the government of Orbegoso, who appointed him general inspector of the militias of the Republic, a position of great importance since its main objective was to ensure the stability of the regime and prevent any type of uprising.

Coup d'état

Salaverry's Effigy in the Proper's Pantheon in Lima.

So much power in the hands of Salaverry made many rightly suspicious, fearing that he would carry out a coup. But President Orbegoso, a weak and overly kind man, seemed unaware of the danger. In one of his works, Dean Valdivia recounts that Orbegoso asked Salaverry about the rumors that he wanted to make a revolution. Salaverry, very easily, replied: "If it were so, Mr. General President, I would begin by shooting Your Excellency first."" Orbegoso was visibly mortified by such an answer, but managed to do nothing.

On the other hand, in Bolivia the president of that country, Andrés de Santa Cruz, conspired with General Gamarra, planning the union of the highland nation with Peru. Possibly for this last reason or for another reason, Orbegoso headed south, leaving Manuel Salazar y Baquíjano in charge of command in Lima (November 7, 1834).

With Orbegoso absent, the sergeants and unpaid soldiers that made up the garrison rose up in the Real Felipe del Callao Fortress (January 1, 1835). Salaverry quelled the uprising by storming the fortress and became governor of said plaza (January 4). Then, taking advantage of his unbeatable situation, he pronounced himself at the head of his garrison against the authority of the person in charge of command, Mr. Salazar (midnight on February 22); shortly after he entered Lima and named himself Supreme Head of the Republic (February 25), under the pretext that the country was headless, that is, without a president, since Orbegoso was outside the capital. The new government was recognized in various parts of the country, but not in the south, which continued to obey Orbegoso. He sent a division under the command of General Francisco Valle Riestra against Salaverry. Valle Riestra went to sea in Islay and landed in Pisco, but could not continue because his own men captured him and handed him over to Salaverry, who ordered him executed by firing squad. Such excess was due, it is believed, to an old and bitter personal enmity or simply to a fit of anger on the part of Salaverry, due to the misdeeds committed by the bandits in Lima.

Another expedition organized in the north by General Domingo Nieto in support of Orbegoso was also defeated by Salaverry himself. Grandson was banished. The Salaverran squad surrendered to Islay and Arica (southern ports).

A decree of general amnesty, issued by Salaverry in May 1835 and the call to the Congress that was to meet in Jauja, were signs that the unification of the command of the country in the hands of Salaverry was already a fact; Only Arequipa still abided by Orbegoso's authority.

Administrative work

Felipe S. Salaverry and his rubric. Illustration of Evaristo San Cristóval. «Delgado, pale, with eyes of living looking and "female laugh that never bathed her face of pleasure", the stilettos covered almost like a helmet the sides of her face and stumbled to almost touch her mouth, where the trimmed mustache filled the sensation of arrogance. When he signed the last letter of his last name with a wide and nervous sign as if he had written it with the tip of the sword». (Jorge Basadre)

Salaverry's authoritarian government represented a second edition of Gamarra's authoritarianism. This explains why personalities such as Felipe Pardo y Aliaga and Andrés Martínez, who had served Gamarra in his first government, collaborated with him.

Among the measures taken by the ephemeral government of Salaverry we mention the following:

• It established a Council of State, which should be composed of brilliant personalities. The body was composed of such disparate characters as the authoritarian José Ignacio Moreno, and the liberals Manuel Salazar and Baquíjano and Francisco Xavier de Luna Pizarro.
• He re-established the General Customs Directorate, suppressed by Orbegoso, and regulated the collection of import duties. Severe penalties were imposed against smuggling.
• It encouraged the development of trade and industry, abolishing the patent tax; setting the maximum interest of the loan of money at one percent per month; and re-establishing the Consulate Court to avoid morosity in the processing of commercial disputes. He stated that the vouchers, levies and any other simple recognition of debt among merchants would have the same strength as public writings.
• He eliminated the caste contribution.
• It restored the slave trade from other countries of America.
• In the face of the proliferation of crime, the court called “Commission de la Acordada”, which summarily judged the causes of murder, injury and theft in the department of Lima. It then extended its jurisdiction to the causes of tumult, sedition, treason and in general those that dealt with crimes against the public sosiego, as well as those of smuggling.
• It imposed the punishment of the death penalty for thieves.
• It abolished infamous penalties (pates and gallows).
• He left without effect the contract for a railroad between Callao and Lima for “not having an important object”. This work would be taken time later, under the first government of Don Ramón Castilla.
• It regulated the practice of folding the bells of the parishes and convents, which should not exceed five minutes.
• He re-established the use of the toga for the vowels of the Supreme and Superior Courts, and for the judges of first instance.
• On 6 June 1835, the treaty of friendship, trade and navigation, which had signed the plenipotentiaries of Peru and Chile in January of that year; one of its main clauses stipulated that Chilean natural or manufactured products (trigo, flour, etc.), led in Peruvian and Chilean vessels, would only pay half of the rights of internship with which other nations were encumbered, etc.
• He had a healthy purpose of re-establishing relations with Spain, where he was sent as plenipotentiary minister Don Felipe Pardo and Aliaga. But this did not reach its destination, staying in Chile, whose government requested help against Santa Cruz, as the Bolivian invasion of Peru occurred.

The Bolivian invasion

Withdrawn in Arequipa, Orbegoso asked for help from General Santa Cruz, the president of Bolivia, accepting the intervention of the Bolivian army and committing to establish a confederation. Such decision originated the bloody war between Salaverry and Santa Cruz.

Gamarra, enraged with Santa Cruz before the political turn he had taken, allied himself with Salaverry, making a common front against the foreign invasion. Counting on his popularity in southern Peru, especially in Cuzco, his land native, Gamarra assembled an army and was the first to face the Bolivian forces. But he was defeated at Yanacocha on August 13, 1835, and he had to withdraw from the war scene, perhaps waiting for a better opportunity to regain power.

Gamarra's defeat prompted Salaverry to precipitate his actions and go after the Bolivian forces. After launching against Santa Cruz his famous decree of "War to Death" and offering prizes to whoever killed a Bolivian, Salaverry began an audacious military campaign, which began with the assault on the port of Cobija by the Navy, where the Bolivian flag was dragged to the ground in a public ceremony. He then opened the campaign in southern Peru with an army of 5,000 troops.

But in the southern highlands of the country, Salaverry was losing ground and both Cuzco and Arequipeños joined the confederate forces, which took Cuzco and Ayacucho. These forces came to add 8,000 troops. At the end of 1835 the Confederates took control of Lima, a fact that left Salaverry's Nationalist army in isolation.

Defeat and death

Felipe Salaverry's tomb at the Master Cemetery.

Salaverry occupied the city of Arequipa, but was forced to leave there due to the hostility of its inhabitants, who openly supported the federation plans of Santa Cruz and Orbegoso, since an eventual union with Bolivia would tremendously favor trade between the provinces.

Even with these tactical disadvantages, Salaverry fervently pursued the Bolivian army until reaching its rearguard at the Uchumayo Bridge (February 4, 1836), where he fought a victorious battle that encouraged him to continue and, somehow, trust in a quick triumph over the rest of the Santa Cruz forces. In that clash, a march composed by Manuel Bañón for the Supreme Chief was played, called La Salaverrina, but which from then on was known as The attack of Uchumayo. Even today it continues to be the most popular and well-known march of the Peruvian army.

Three days later, on February 7, both armies collided in the bloody battle of Socabaya, where the young 28-year-old caudillo was totally defeated and fled by lost roads towards the sea, but was intercepted by a patrol of General Guillermo Miller, who got his surrender by promising to intercede for his life.

Salaverry was subjected to a summary trial and despite the promise that was made to him, he was sentenced to death. His last wish was a pen and some paper, in which he wrote three documents: his will, a letter to Juana Pérez, his wife, and a protest " before America » for the execution of him. He was shot in the Plaza de Armas of Arequipa, next to his main officers. It is said that when the riflemen fired the first volley, they all fell dead, except Salaverry, who stopped, took a step back and said: "The law protects me", but a new volley ended his attack. life (February 18, 1836). After his death, the Peru-Bolivian Confederation was established, a political entity that would last until 1839.

His remains are in the Presbítero Maestro Cemetery.

Offspring

In 1830, he had a natural son from his relationship with Mrs. María Vicenta Ramírez Duarte, daughter of Mr. Francisco Ramírez y Baldés (son of Mr. Manuel Ramírez de Arellano and Mrs. Mariana Baldés y Montenegro, this daughter of Mr. Francisco Baldés and Montenegro, owner of the La Solana farm) and his wife and cousin, Doña Narcisa Duarte y Ramírez, owners of farms between present-day Peru and Ecuador, this son would be the poet Carlos Augusto Salaverry.

Two years later, on July 12, 1832, in the Parish of San Pedro de Tacna, he married Doña Juana Pérez Palza de Infantas, daughter of Manuel Pérez and María Feliciana Palza e Infantas, with whom he had a son, Felipe Alejandro Augusto Salaverry Pérez, who married Carmen Olavegoya, sister of businessman Domingo Olavegoya Iriarte.