Background
José Luis Bustamante y Rivero was born in Arequipa, on January 15, 1894. His parents were Manuel Bustamante y Barreda, a lawyer and district attorney in Arequipa, and Victoria de Rivero y Romero.
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José Luis Bustamante y Rivero was born in Arequipa, on January 15, 1894. His parents were Manuel Bustamante y Barreda, a lawyer and district attorney in Arequipa, and Victoria de Rivero y Romero.
He graduated from the University of Arequipa and began the practice of law with considerable success.
He participated in the revolution against Leguia in 1930, and has been a consistent liberal. Bustamante entered diplomacy when he was appointed minister to Bolivia, serving from 1934 to 1939, after which he served in the same capacity in Uruguay, 1939-1942. He was elected president of Peru in June 1945 for a term of six years in one of the warmest political battles in the history of Peru. His support came from a combination of the liberal Aprista party, under the direction of Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, and other leftist organizations. After a stormy three years in office, he was forced to resign on October 29, 1948, by a rightist military coup, and General Manuel Odría became provisional president. Bustamante retired to private life for a time, but in 1961 he was elected a judge of the International Court of Justice, and he was president of the court from 1967 to 1970. In the late 1970's he served as a mediator in the war between El Salvador and Honduras. He died January 11, 1989, in Lima.
During his presidency, Bustamante restored press freedom and full civil rights and freed all political prisoners. He also purged the Military, cancelled gambling licenses and took control of the expenditures of the national treasury. One of his important international agreements was to establish a 200-mile stretch of Peruvian sea.
