Biography
Born in Huánuco in 1826, he entered the army at an early age and served in the provinces of Southern Peru.
After a coup which overthrew Juan Antonio Pezet's government, Prado assumed the dictatorship of the country in 1865. He only served in that position for two months, leaving Pedro Diez Canseco as a provisional president for less than a month. Prado's intentions were to participate in that year's elections which, surprisingly, he won. He defended Peru against Spanish aggression at the Battle of Callao on May 2, 1866. His first presidency lasted until 1868 when he had to resign under pressure from the Peruvian Congress.
After Manuel Pardo's presidential term ended in 1876, Prado was elected president again on August 2 of that year. His second term was marked with the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) which broke out with Chile. Prado took active measures to prepare for defence by leaving for Tacna and later Tarapacá (where he met Bolivian president Hilarión Daza), with the intention of taking command of the armies assembling there. He assessed Peru was not ready for the war and decided to go back to Lima to prepare and send back new reinforcements.
In the course of these deliberations, Prado left his vice-president La Puerta in charge and decided to leave for Europe to buy more armament and obtain more money for the war. Prado wrote a manifesto to the nation explaining the difficulties of the war and that those "circumstances forced him to leave the country to acquire armament to defend the honor of the Homeland". Many Peruvians took this as a coward act and excuse for his inability to govern in the middle of the war, which led Nicolás de Piérola to stage a successful coup d'état and later declared himself commander-in-chief on December 23, 1879. Prado did not return to Peru until the end of the war.
He later moved back to Europe and died in Paris, France in 1901. His son Leoncio Prado, killed during the War of the Pacific, is one of the traditional heroes of Peru, while the other son Manuel Prado Ugarteche was two times President of Peru.
Read more about this topic: Mariano Ignacio Prado
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