Republican Guard (Peru)

The Peruvian Republican Guard (Guardia Republicana del Perú) was a Peruvian security force responsibility for border control, custody of the prisons, and guarding significant government buildings.

The Republican Guard originally started as an infantry regiment of the Peruvian Gendarmerie (Gendarmería Nacional del Perú) which was founded in 1852, and was transformed into the 1st Gendarme Battalion in 1862, and fought in the War of the Pacific, with headquarters at the “Sacramentos de Santa Ana” Barracks, located in the street of the same name and next to Plaza Italia, in Barrios Altos, Lima (now the campus of the "Heroes of Cenepa" Elementary School).

It would be only in 1919 when the 1st Gendarme Battalion became the 1st Gendarme Battalion "Peruvian Republican Guard", upon the recommendations of then President Augusto Bernardino Leguía Salcedo, at the suggestion of the Peruvian Army General Gerardo Alvarez, who when on a visit to Paris, France, saw the French Republican Guard and inspired by its long history and the its mission to guard government institutions and the presidency made it clear that it was due time that Peru adopt its example. A Supreme Decree for this purpose was enacted on August 7 that same year. With Florentino Bustamante, a former NCO, as its first commanding officer till 1923, the Guard Battalion's mandate was to ensure security in all buildings of the national government especially "the security of the Government Palace and the National Congress", as stated in the decree that raised it. It later became a full regiment.

In 1931, the Republican Guard Regiment was transformed into the 2nd Infantry Regiment of Security, in a failed effort to begin the unification of the national police services following the Chilean example. It reverted to its former name later that year orders of President David Samanez Ocampo, and formally reorganized once more and stripped of its State Color.

The regiment would be reformed in 1932, with a new motto: "Honor, Loyalty, Discipline", by now commanded by COL Enrique Herbozo Méndez, Peruvian Army, and after the assassination of President Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro on April 30, 1933, stayed as the presidential guard for several more years. The reorganized Regiment's strength was a regimental headquarters unit, service battalion and 2 battalions, the latter two composed of 3 rifle companies each plus a machine gun platoon and the regimental band and Corps of drums.

In 1935 the Guard's role was expanded, through the enactment by the National Congress of the Republican Guard Organic Law, signed that same year by President Field Marshal Óscar R. Benavides, to patrolling the land frontiers, security of prisons, security of private and public places of national importance, and to assist in maintaining peace and order and national security as a whole, as well as contributing to the efforts of the armed forces during wartime.

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