Francisco Morales Bermúdez

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Lore & Background

Morales Bermúdez was born in Lima on 4 October 1921, the son of Army Colonel Remigio Morales Bermúdez and grandson of ex-President Remigio Morales Bermúdez. His grandfather and all his original family were from the old Peruvian department of Tarapacá, now part of Chile. He received most of his education at Lima's Colegio de la Inmaculada, and in 1939 was accepted into the Escuela Militar de Chorrillos. After graduation, he became an important member of the Centro de Altos Estudios Militares. He achieved the rank of brigadier general and was appointed to his first political post in 1968 as Minister of Economy and Finance in the administration of Fernando Belaúnde, resigning after two months due to internal problems. After Belaúnde was deposed by a coup, the military government led by General Juan Velasco asked him to return to the same post. In 1974 he resigned again, this time because he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Peruvian Army. In 1975, he was appointed both Velasco's prime minister and minister of war.

Reader's Guide

With President Velasco's health deteriorating, Morales Bermúdez led a military coup against Velasco and took over as President of Peru on 29 August 1975, leading the country through one of its most severe economic crises. Early in his presidency, in 1975, he spoke of 'socialism' being a goal, but a few months later announced he would no longer use the term because 'its meaning was not clear at all.' He explained that right-wing groups confused socialism with communism, while other groups gave different interpretations that did not coincide with the Ideological Bases of the Revolutionary Process. His regime participated in Operation Condor, with Peruvian forces collaborating with Intelligence Battalion 601 in the kidnapping of Argentines in Lima in 1980. Around the end of his tenure, a housing crisis emerged which started the Lost Decade. In 1978, amid a spying scandal with Chile, he declared the Chilean ambassador Francisco Bulnes Sanfuentes a persona non grata and ordered him to leave in January 1979, following the execution of Julio Vargas Garayar, who became the last person executed by Peru to date. A Constituent Assembly convened by his administration in 1978 replaced the 1933 Constitution. After elections in 1980, he returned power to the first democratically elected government after 12 years of military rule, headed by President Fernando Belaúnde. After leaving office, he kept a relatively low profile, making sporadic speeches about the Peruvian army. In 1985, he made an unsuccessful run for the presidency, obtaining a fraction of one percent of the vote. On 17 January 2017, the Corte d'Assise in Rome found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment in absentia for the forced disappearance of 25 Italian citizens in Peru during Operation Condor. On 16 June 2021, he was among 63 former Peruvian military officials who signed a letter calling on the armed forces to disavow President-elect Pedro Castillo, which the Ministry of Defense promptly clarified 'does not represent the Armed Forces.' He turned 100 on 4 October 2021 and died at a hospital in the Miraflores District of Lima on 14 July 2022. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living state leader.

Did You Know?

• Morales Bermúdez was the grandson of ex-President Remigio Morales Bermúdez, and his grandfather's family were from the old Peruvian department of Tarapacá, now part of Chile.
• He was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance twice: first under Fernando Belaúnde in 1968 (resigning after two months), then again under the military government of General Juan Velasco after Belaúnde was deposed.
• Early in his presidency he spoke of 'socialism' as a goal, but later abandoned the term because he said its meaning was 'not clear at all' and was confused with communism.
• On 17 January 2017, an Italian court sentenced him to life imprisonment in absentia for the forced disappearance of 25 Italian citizens during Operation Condor.
• At the time of his death on 14 July 2022, he was the oldest living state leader.