The Administration of President Leguía of Peru

Extract

On July 4, 1928, President Augusto B. Leguía will have served thirteen years as chief executive of Peru—the last nine of them consecutively—and will still have one year of his present five-year term ahead of him. This is a remarkable record not only in Peru but in all South America. In fact, in Peru only two other presidents have served two complete terms, and those not consecutive; while Señor Leguía has the honor of being the only man who has been elected three times to the first office in the land. However, the moment one commences to take note of the various accomplishments of this diminutive dynamo of Peruvian politics, the smashing of precedents appears to be a routine matter, of administrative efficiency.

Leguía was elected president in 1919, but apparently fearing that his political enemies might try to prevent him from taking office, he forstalled them by a coup d'état of his own. Less than a month after his installation, a presidential decree placed before the people a project for such a drastic reform of the constitution that it was apparent that what was really contemplated was a new constitution.