Background
Andrés Avelino Cáceres was born in Ayacucho on 4 February 1833.
Andrés Avelino Cáceres was born in Ayacucho on 4 February 1833.
Completed high school in his hometown.
Served in General Ramón Castilla’s rebellious army with the rank of second lieutenant. When Castilla became president, Cáceres was sent toEurope for medical treatment of wounds received during the civil wars. Afterward he rose rapidly in the army, participating in a conflict with Ecuador, the Battle of Callao (1866) against a Spanish armada, and armed rebellions. The War of the Pacific against Chile started in 1879 when Colonel Cáceres was governor of Cuzco. He fought bravely in several battles until he was wounded again in the defense of Lima. He was saved by Jesuits who sneaked him out of the capital. Cáceres nursed his wounds and organized the resistance in the Andes as supreme political and military commander of central Peru. His heroic deeds in the guerrilla war against Chilean occupying forces gained him the name of “The Wizard of the Andes.”
Bitterly opposed to the Treaty of Ancón (1883) imposed by victorious Chile and signed by Peruvian President Miguel Iglesias, Cáceres attempted vainly to seize control of the government in 1884. A year later his army succeeded in occupying Lima and forcing General Iglesias to hold elections which Cáceres won. He served as president of the republic from 1886 to 1890.
After leaving office, he was appointed minister in Great Britain and France (1891-1892). He won the manipulated elections of 1894, but his presidency was short. In 1895 a general uprising led by Nicolás de Pierola overthrew him. He lived as a private citizen in Buenos Aires and Paris before becoming minister to Italy (1905-1911) and to Germany (1911-1914). He was promoted to the rank of marshal in 1919.