Prado y Ugarteche, Manuel (1889–1967)

Manuel Prado y Ugarteche (b. 1889; d. 14 August 1967), son of former president Mariano Ignacio Prado, president of Peru (1939–1945; 1956–1962). During his first term Prado completed many projects begun under the preceding dictatorship of Oscar Benavides, including the national census of 1940, only the second in the country's history. His budgetary management encouraged a literacy campaign that led to the building of many schools and the training of new teachers, the establishment of a social security system, new medical facilities, and the extension of roads by 2,400 miles. During his second term Prado raised new public funds through indirect taxes on gasoline and other oil products. After 1955 Peruvian products found new markets abroad and the country imported more goods. Indeed, imports outweighed exports, adversely affecting the balance of payments. The numbers of wealthy and well off increased in these years, but with Peru experiencing a population increase, the numbers of poor also increased dramatically. Demands for new housing and land reform went unmet. To blunt criticism from the wealthy, Prado appointed Pedro Beltrán, the sharply critical editor of the influential La Prensa, as prime minister. Beltrán unsuccessfully sought to meet government needs through indirect taxes on oil products. Meanwhile, the legalization of APRa after 1956 allowed the leaders of that party to increase their popular support by campaigning against Beltrán and in favor of land reform. Prado had nearly completed his second term when military officers, fearing the rise to power of APRa through a deal among presidential contenders, seized control just after the 1962 vote count.

See alsoPeru: Peru Since Independence .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fredrick B. Pike, The Modern History of Peru (1967), pp. 282-320.

François Bourricaud, Power and Society in Contemporary Peru, translated by Paul Stevenson (1970).

Additional Bibliography

Portocarrero S, Felipe. El imperio Prado, 1890–1970. Lima: Universidad del Pacífico, 1995.

                                          Vincent Peloso