Background
Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro was born on 12 August 1890 in Piura.
Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro was born on 12 August 1890 in Piura.
Graduated from the Chorrillos Military Academy in 1910.
He was promoted for his assistance in overthrowing the constitutional government of Guillermo Billinghurst (1914). Later, he alternated service and training abroad with efforts to overthrow President Augusto B. Leguia. In 1929 President Leguia promoted Sánchez Cerro to lieutenant colonel, but he nonetheless overthrew Leguia in 1930 and ruled as head of a military junta until 1931.
In the 1931 national elections, Sánchez Cerro ran as UR candidate against Víctor Rául Haya de la Torre, of the Peruvian Aprista Party (PAP).
Sánchez Cerro was proclaimed president-elect. Upon assuming power, he executed eight rebellious sailors, deported the 23 Aprista representatives in the Constituent Assembly, crushed rebellions in Trujillo, Huaraz, and Cajamarca, and ordered thousands of Apristas to be imprisoned. Sánchez Cerro was assasinated on April 30, 1933.
In 1931 he founded the Unión Revolucionaria (UR), a party that used swastikas in its political propaganda and black shirts for its shock troops.