Manuel Prado Ugarteche

President of Peru

April 21, 1889 Lima, Peru

August 15, 1967(1967-08-15) (78) Paris, France

July 28, 1956 – July 18, 1962

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Prado and the second or maternal family name is Ugarteche. Manuel Carlos Prado y Ugarteche (April 21, 1889 – August 15, 1967) was a banker who served twice as President of Peru. Son of former president Mariano Ignacio Prado, he was born in Lima and served as the nation's 50th (1939 - 1945) and 54th (1956 - 1962) President. His brother, Leoncio Prado Gutiérrez, was a military hero who died in 1883, six years before Manuel Prado was born. Prado was born in April 1889 as the son of Mariano Ignacio Prado. He went to college and became a banker. In 1915, Prado, along with General Benavides, overthrew Guillermo Billinghurst and his government during the First World War, in which, Peru remained neutral. Benavides became the president of the Junta. Later imprisoned, he was deported to Chile and went into exile in France. He returned in 1932, and upon his return he was chairman of the board of the Peruvian Vapores Company and general manager and president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru,which he served from 1934 to 1939. He ran and won the 1939 elections. Under his first administration, Peru came out victorious against Ecuador in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian War, and also became the first country in South America to break relations with the Axis, as Peru declared war on the Axis. After the end of his administration in 1945, he went to Paris, and eventually came back. He defeated Belaunde in the elections in 1956, as his second administration came to power. He sided with the United States in the Cold War, but was deposed in a coup, led by Ricardo Perez Godoy in 1962. He went into exile for one last time to Paris, where he died in 1967.