Manuel A. Odría
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Manuel A. Odría OESP |
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|---|---|
 |
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| 52nd & 53rd President of Peru | |
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In office 28 July 1950 – 28 July 1956 |
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| Vice President | Héctor Boza |
| Preceded by | Zenón Noriega Agüero |
| Succeeded by | Manuel Prado Ugarteche |
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In office 1 November 1948 – 1 June 1950 |
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| Vice President | Zenón Noriega Agüero |
| Preceded by | José Bustamante y Rivero |
| Succeeded by | Zenón Noriega Agüero |
| Minister of Government and Police | |
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In office 12 January 1947 – 17 June 1948 |
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| President | José Bustamante y Rivero |
| Preceded by | |
| Succeeded by | Julio César Villegas Carro |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 26, 1896 Tarma, Junín, Peru 
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| Died | February 18, 1974 (aged 77) Lima, Peru
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| Nationality | Peru (Italian ancestry) |
| Political party | Odriíst National Union |
| Profession | Military officer |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Manuel Arturo Odría Amoretti (November 26, 1896 – February 18, 1974) was a military officer who served as the 52nd and 53rd President of Peru, essentially ruling as a military dictator.
Manuel Odría was born in 1896 in Tarma, a city in the central Andes just east of Lima. He graduated first in his class from the Chorillos Military Academy in 1915. He joined the army and as a Lieutenant Colonel was a war hero in the 1941 Ecuadorian-Peruvian war. He soon achieved the rank of Major General.
In 1945, José Bustamante had attained the presidency with the help of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA). Soon, major disagreements arose between Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, the founder of APRA, and President Bustamante. The President disbanded his Aprista cabinet and replaced it with a mostly military one. Odría, a fierce opponent of APRA, was appointed Minister of Government and Police. In 1948, Odría and other right-wing elements urged Bustamante to ban APRA. When the President refused, Odría resigned his post. On October 27, 1948, he led a successful military coup against the government and took over as president. After two years, he resigned and had one of his colleagues, Zenón Noriega, take office as a puppet president so he could run for president as a civilian. He was duly elected a month later as the only candidate.
Odría came down hard on APRA, momentarily pleasing the oligarchy and all others on the right. Like Juan Perón, he followed a populist course that won him great favor with the poor and lower classes. A thriving economy allowed him to indulge in expensive but crowd-pleasing social policies. At the same time, however, civil rights in the nation were severely restricted and corruption was rampant throughout his régime. People feared that his dictatorship would run indefinitely; they were surprised when Odría legalized opposition parties in 1956 and called fresh elections. He did not run for office. He was succeeded by a former president, Manuel Prado.
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