Word: odria
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Peru (pop. 9.500,000). Well-intentioned President Manuel Odria long ago promised to run off a free election next June. At first sullenly doubtful, Peruvians finally decided that he meant what he said, began campaigning with such antigovernmental vigor that Odria's police were goaded unwisely into shooting up a political meeting in Arequipa last December. The result was a surprisingly loud outcry for a completely unfettered election. It was under this banner that Brigadier General Marcial Merino Pereyra rebelled last week in Iquitos (see below...
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...
...General Odria got the point fast; his first act was a doublecheck on other garrisons. Apparently reassured, he slapped on a state of siege, denying Peruvians the right to travel or hold meetings...
Distinguished Prisoners. Aristocratic Pedro Beltran, businessman, cotton planter, publisher, and onetime Ambassador to Washington, paid the bills for Odria's successful 1948 revolution, but soon broke with Odria. Lately, Beltran has 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...