José Luis Bustamante y Rivero (January 15, 1894 – January 11, 1989) was a lawyer, writer, politician, and diplomat who served as the 44th

President of Peru The president of Peru (), officially the constitutional president of the Republic of Peru (), is the head of state and head of government of Peru. The president is the head of the executive branch and is the supreme head of the Peruvian Armed ...

from 1945 to 1948. He was ousted from office in the 1948 Peruvian coup d'état. President of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

from 1967 to 1970.

Early years

José Bustamante was born in

Arequipa Arequipa (; Aymara language, Aymara and ), also known by its nicknames of ''Ciudad Blanca'' (Spanish for "White City") and ''León del Sur'' (Spanish for "South's Lion"), is a city in Peru and the capital of the eponymous Arequipa (province), ...

. His parents were Manuel Bustamante y Barreda, a lawyer and district attorney in Arequipa, and Victoria de Rivero y Romero. José married María Jesús Rivera in 1923. He received his early education in Arequipa at Colegio San José and obtained his law degree from the Universidad Nacional San Agustín de Arequipa in his native city and his Ph.D. from the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad in

Cusco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department. The city was the cap ...

. After a distinguished career as a professor and legal scholar, Bustamante became interested in politics.

Coup against Leguía

Bustamante reached political maturity as the author of the manifesto which launched the 1930 coup that ousted President Augusto B. Leguía. He soon earned the trust of Leguía's successor, Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro, and began his new career in 1934 by serving as a diplomat, representing Peru as Peruvian Minister to Bolivia (1934–1938, 1942–1945) and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

(1939–1942). He ran for president in 1945 as a candidate for the Frente Democrático Nacional, a moderate, left-of-center party that aligned itself with Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre's APRA and the Peruvian Communist Party. Opposing him was the Legión Patriótica Independiente candidate, Gen. Eloy G. Ureta. Bustamante comfortably won the election, the cleanest Peru had held in decades.

Presidency

During his first seven days as president, Bustamante restored press freedom and full civil rights and freed all political prisoners. He also purged the military, cancelled gambling licenses and took control of the expenditures of the national treasury. One of his important international agreements was to establish that Peruvian sovereignty extended 200 miles out to sea, a doctrine that was widely accepted in international law. A number of progressive reforms were also carried out during the course of his presidency.Trevitt, Vittorio (Published in History Today Volume 68 Issue 10 October 2018), ''A New Peru The rise and fall of José Luis Bustamante’s left-wing presidency

/ref> Paige, Jeffery M. (1978) ''Agrarian Revolution''
p. 151
/ref> Crow, Joanna (2022), ''Itinerant Ideas Race, Indigeneity and Cross-Border Intellectual Encounters in Latin America 1900-1950''
p. 306
/ref> As president, Bustamante hoped to create a more democratic government by limiting the power of the military and the oligarchy. Conflict soon arose, however, between the president and Haya de la Torre. Without the support of the APRA party Bustamante found his presidency severely limited. The murder of the ultraconservative editor , a prominent member of the Peruvian elite (and bitter editorial enemy of the APRA Party), sparked a political crisis that was blamed immediately on the APRA's influence on the Government. President Bustamante y Rivero was forced to name a military cabinet to tide over the crisis. In October 1948, rebel sailors and officers seized five warships, locked up or shot their commanders, sent landing parties ashore under cover of a ragged bombardment. Shore-based sailors took over the Naval Academy, the Naval Armory, and the Real Felipe Fortress. After troops loyal to the government crushed the revolt, President Bustamante suspended all civil rights. The insurrection, he declared, had been the work of the APRA Party. Under the President's orders, government troops occupied the APRA headquarters, seized the plant of its newspaper, ''La Tribuna'', and arrested several prominent Apristas. But for the military cabinet, those moves were not enough. Postwar economic problems and strife caused by strong labor unions led to a 1948 Peruvian coup d'état, military coup on October 29, 1948, which led General Manuel A. Odría to become the new president. Bustamante went into exile on the same day and was taken to Argentina.

Post-presidency

While in exile, Bustamante resided in Buenos Aires, Madrid and Paris. On February 9, 1956, while Odría still in power, Bustamante returned to Peru, causing Peruvians great surprise. In 1960 he was elected a member of the

and served as its president from 1967 to 1969. In 1969, due to his recognition as an international jurist, the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...

designated Bustamante as a mediator in the border conflict between

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

known as the

Football War The Football War (), also known as the Soccer War or the 100 Hour War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Existing tensions between the two countries coincided with rioting during a 1970 FIFA World ...

, which ended peacefully after a peace treaty was signed on October 30, 1980, in Lima, Peru. As a former president of Peru, Bustamante was ultimately elected senator for life from 1980 to 1989, as established by the Peruvian Constitution of 1979. He died in Lima in 1989, aged 94, four days before his 95th birthday.

Published works

José Bustamante was the author of several judicial and other related works currently in the National Library of Peru. His published works include the following: * ''Arequipa'' (1947) * ''Tres años de lucha por la democracia en el Perú'' (1949) * ''Panamericanismo e iberoamericanismo'' (1951) * ''Artesanía textil en el Perú'' (1952) * ''Mensaje al Perú: Perú, estructura social'' (1960) * ''La Corte Internacional de justicia'' (1964) * ''Una visión del Perú'' (1972) * ''Derecho del mar'' (1972)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bustamante y Rivero, Jose 1894 births 1989 deaths Bustamante y Benavides family Peruvian people of Spanish descent People from Arequipa Presidents of Peru Presidents of the International Court of Justice 20th-century Peruvian judges National Democratic Front (Peru) politicians Ambassadors of Peru to Bolivia Ambassadors of Peru to Uruguay National University of Saint Augustine alumni National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco alumni Peruvian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals Peruvian judges of international courts and tribunals International Court of Justice judges Leaders ousted by a coup