Word: merino
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Peru, Brigadier General Marcial Merino rebelled with his 10,000-man Jungle Division on the upper Amazon (TIME, Feb. 27), and said, in effect, to the country's other garrison commanders: "I move that we overthrow President Manuel Odria." Strongman Odria hastily shifted several doubtful generals out of high command. By last weekend it was clear to Merino that no one was going to second his motion. In a voice choked with suita ble emotion, he surrendered to the government by long-distance telephone from his headquarters in the river port of Iquitos, then took asylum in the Brazilian...
Soon after sunup the rest of the garrison was standing at attention in the treelined Plaza de Armas. Brigadier General Marcial Merino Pereyra, their commander, read off a manifesto explaining to his men why he had led them into rebellion against Strongman Manuel Odria. They would, he promised, "open the front door for democracy in Peru, and guarantee absolutely free elections." Townspeople gawked, then drifted off to work...
Waiting Game. General Merino, 51, an able infantry officer, then sat back to wait. His boondocks uprising was shrewdly conceived. By merely proclaiming a rebellion, Merino forced Odria to retaliate or lose his strongman's prestige. But Odria was denied any chance of easy attack. Merino claimed the whole Second (Jungle) Division of 12,000 men (the whole army numbers 55,000 to 60,000). He also claimed the navy's Amazon fleet: seven 200-to 500-ton gunboats, and about thirty 10-to 50-ton river patrol craft. Moreover, most of the troops were inaccessibly camped...
...been booming a wealthy fellow businessman, Pedro Rosello, as an anti-government candidate in elections set for June. Beltran's newspaper La Prensa has loudly accused Odria of plotting to steal the elections for a hand-picked successor. To the dictator, this charge was suggestively reflected in Merino's manifesto. Cops raided and closed La Prensa. They arrested Beltran, Rosello, scores of others...
...dictator then turned back to military problems. At week's end he was reportedly concentrating his eight Thunderjets and 20 Hawker Hunters at northern bases in readiness for an air strike at the rebels. With Merino still sitting tight and hoping for the time factor to operate, it was clearly Odria's move...