José Bustamante y Rivero

Infobox Officeholder
name = José Bustamante


nationality = Peruvian
order = 39th President of the Republic of Peru
term_start = July 28 1945
term_end = October 29 1948
predecessor = Manuel Prado
successor = Manuel Odría
order2 = President of the International Court of Justice
term_start2 = 1967
term_end2 = 1969
predecessor2 =
successor2 =
birth_date = birth date|1894|1|15|df=y
birth_place = Arequipa Peru
death_date = death date|1989|1|11|df=y
death_place = Lima, Peru
spouse = María Jesús Rivera
party = Frente Democrático Nacional
vicepresident =

José Luis Bustamante y Rivero (January 15, 1894 – January 11, 1989) was a lawyer, writer, politician, diplomat, President of Peru from 1945 to 1948 and President of the International Court of Justice in The Hague from 1967 to 1969.

Early years

José Bustamante was born in Arequipa. His parents were Manuel Bustamante y Barreda, lawyer, district attorney in Arequipa, and Victoria de Rivero y Romero. José married María Jesús Rivera in 1923. He received his early education in Arequipa and his Law Degree from the Universidad Nacional San Agustín de Arequipa and his Ph.D. from the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad in Cusco. After a distinguished career as a teacher 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 Uruguay, Bolivia and various other countries in the Americas.

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 relatively honest election.

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 a 200-mile stretch of Peruvian sea.

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 "Francisco Grana Garland", a prominent member of the Peruvian Elite (and bitter editorial enemy of Apra Party), sparked a political crisis that was blamed immediately to 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 loyal troops 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 military coup on October 29, 1948, which led Gen. Manuel A. Odría to become the new President.

Post-presidency

Bustamante was exiled to Argentina. He finally returned to Peru in 1955. In 1960 he was elected a member of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and served as its President from 1967 to 1969.

He died in Lima in 1989, aged 95.

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)