Office of the Historian

823.00 Revolutions/21: Telegram

The Chargé in Peru (Mayer) to the Secretary of State

Lima, August 28, 1930—noon.
[Received 4:17 p.m.]

161. Sanchez Cerro arrived in Lima yesterday afternoon by Faucett plane piloted by same and received a great ovation as the second liberator. Last night the new junta was sworn in.

The following decree appeared in this morning’s press:

“Considering that the resignation of the ex-President Don Augusto B. Leguia was brought about through the revolutionary movement which the Army initiated on August 22nd and the opinion of the country has been manifested in the judgment of conferring upon me the supreme mandate of the State as chief of that movement in order to initiate the labor of national reconstitution as stated in the manifesto which explained the ideals of the revolution; there has arrived the moment of organizing the junta of government provided for in the review decree overruled 23rd of this month to prepare for the arrival of constitutionality.

It is decreed:

  • First: That a Military Junta of Government of the Republic is constituted with the following personnel: President of the Military Junta of Government, (without portfolio) Lieutenant [Colonel?] Luis M. Sanctus [Sanchez?] Cerro; Minister of War, Major J. Alejandro Barco; Minister of the Navy and Aviation, Commander Carlos Rotalde; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Colonel Ernesto Montagne; Minister of Gobernacion and Police, Major Gustavo A. Jimenez; Minister of Hacienda and Commerce, Colonel Ricardo E. Llona; Minister of Justice, Lieutenant Colonel Armando Sologuren; Minister of Public Works, Colonel Eulogio Castillo.
  • Second: The military Junta of Government assumes the direction of the Senate for the time necessary for the reestablishment in the country of normal constitutionality and under the word of honor which its members have given to inspire in it the principles expounded in the manifesto law to the nation from Arequipa, August 22nd.
  • Third: In separate decrees there will be nominated the advisers to the secretaries of the junta which may be needed.
  • Fourth: Thanks in the name of the nation to the military, etc., etc.

It is too soon to make any considered estimate of this junta but everything thus far heard of its members if [is] favorable.

Mayer