Birth and early years

From an aristocratic family, he was the son of Peruvian President Mariano Ignacio Prado, and María Magdalena Ugarteche Gutiérrez de Cossío. His father left Peru in the midst of the War with Chile, and was deposed by the coup d'état of Nicolás de Piérola (1879), without being able to make the purchase of weapons in Europe, the reason for his journey, being forced to stay abroad. His paternal brother, Leoncio Prado, was a hero of this conflict and was shot by the Chileans in 1883. Other brothers of his were: Mariano, lawyer and businessman; Javier, intellectual and political; and Jorge,also a politician.

Manuel studied at the College of the Immaculate and pursued higher studies at the Faculties of Sciences and Political Sciences of the University of San Marcos,where he received a bachelor's degree in 1907 with his thesis on "The Hydrostatic Pressure Centers", and as a doctor in 1910 with the thesis "Essay on the rainfall regime of Lima". He also studied at the National School of Engineers (now the National University of Engineering),graduating as a Civil Engineer in 1911.

Elected by students from the National School of Engineers and the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, he was part of the delegation of Peruvian students that attended the First Congress of American Students Montevideo from January 26 to February 2, 1908. As a university student, he followed the military instruction required by the regulation achieving the degree of sergeant and then that of cavalry ensign in a course organized by the French Military Mission in Chorrillos. With this degree he joined the army and was mobilized to Lambayeque,when the threat of war with Ecuador in 1910.

Incorporated into university teaching he was in charge, at the Faculty of Sciences of San Marcos, the infinitesimal Analysis course - first as an adjunct professor in 1912 and then as a full professor in 1918.

From a very young age, he became a member of the Civil Party. He supported, together with his brothers Javier and Jorge, General Oscar R. Benavides in the coup against President Guillermo Billinghurst, which took place on February 4, 1914; and was present at the assault on the Government Palace, a participation that earned him his promotion to lieutenant. On January 19 of that same year, he had married Enriqueta Garland Higginson, six years his senior, with which he had two children: Rosa and Manuel Prado Garland.

In 1915, he was elected a member of the Municipal Council of Lima during the administration of Mayor Pedro de Osma. In the Council he was an inspector of Works and as such designed some of the plans of the urban reordering of the city.

As a young army officer, Prado was a key player in the coup that overthrew President Guillermo Billinghurst in 1914. He became president of the Central Reserve Bank in 1934 and served until 1939.^[2]

He assumed the presidency of the Associated Electric Companies. In 1919, when President Augusto B. Leguía began his eleventh-century, Serrano was elected deputy for huamachuco province for that year's National Assembly which was intended to issue the 1920 Constitution2. He then remained an ordinary senator until 19243. From Congress he began a tenacious opposition to the re-election politics of President Augusto B. Leguía, so he had to be imprisoned in 1921,along with other civilists, and deported to Chile. From Chile he went into exile to France, where he remained until 1932. On his return, he was chairman of the board of the Peruvian Vapores Company and general manager and president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru,which he served from 1934 to 1939.

1939 election

For the 1939 general election, President Oscar R. Benavides chose Prado as his presidential candidate. Against this official candidacy, José Quesada Larrea, a young lawyer, a native of Trujillo, Peru, who for his campaign acquired the newspaper La Prensa, from where he fought for electoral freedom, for the obvious purpose of the government to manipulate the results.

The APRA party, which was the most important party in the country, was outlawed. Another important political force, the Sanchecerrista Revolutionary Union, was also annulled when its leader, Luis A. Flores, was banished. At the electoral juncture, both Prado and Quesada requested the support of the apristas(Members and supporters of the APRA) but they decided not to take sides. Prado ran as a candidate for a concentration of small parties.

Before the election, the government shut down La Prensa. When the counts were made, Prado appeared as the victor, with enormous advantage. There was talk of mass fraud

First government (1939 - 1945)

Manuel Prado assumed the presidency on December 8, 1939. Politician until then almost unknown, he predicted that he would not last long in office, but deployed a combination of tactical cunning, strategic flexibility and personal charm that made him one of Peru's most effective politicians of the 20th century. His government largely continued the work done by General Benavides and was of relative democracy. It suffered the consequences of the Second World War, which had a strong impact on trade. Imports fell sharply but export products such as sugar, cotton, metals and rubber increased. The shortage of import products for domestic consumption brought about new industries that successfully replaced foreign products. The war made numerous "new rich" appear.

In the international order, Prado had two notable successes:

The first was the victorious war against Ecuador and the subscription of the Rio de Janeiro Protocol guaranteed by the United States, Brazil, Chile and Argentina,which sought to settle the old boundary lawsuit that for more than a century had kept the attention of the Peruvian chancellery. The problem would be revived again some time later, following Ecuador's disrecognise of the Protocol. The second was the policy of continental solidarity and support for the United States and democracies faced by axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan),during World War II. Peru was the first country in Latin America to break relations with the Axis powers, and during an extraordinary meeting of chancellors held in Rio de Janeiro in early 1942, it was the Peruvian attitude that inclined representatives of other American countries to support the United States. This pro-Americanism brought with it some excesses, such as allowing the United States to set up an air base in Talara (northern Peru), and the mass deportation of German and Japanese residents into confinement camps. In the domestic order, despite being considered a democratic government, Prado kept the Aprista Party outlawed; only in the last year of his government, on the occasion of the general election, he legalized the participation of APRA, which on that occasion was part of the National Democratic Front under the name "People's Party". In contrast, many communists supported Prado, following the international context, as the Soviet Union belonged to the Allied bloc.

Second Government (1956-1962)

The elections were held on June 17, 1956. The official results were as follows: Manuel Prado Ugarteche, 568,134 votes (45.5%); Fernando Belaunde Terry, 457,638 votes (36.7%) and Hernando de Lavalle, 222,323 votes (17.8%).

Prado with John F Kennedy in September 1961

During Prado's second presidency (1956–1962), the only significant proscribed party was the APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance), which was thrown out of power and outlawed in 1948 by President Manuel Odría. Prado announced that he would submit to the newly elected Congress a bill to legalize APRA once again. The bill was later passed and the APRA's famed founder, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, returned from foreign exile.

This government developed in a climate of turmoil motivated by the economic crisis that presented itself with increasingly alarming characteristics; because of the turmoil that arose in the countryside in favor of the realization of land reform and a vigorous campaign of national scope for the recovery of the oil fields of La Brea and Pariñas that illegally continued to operate the American company International Petroleum Company. The leadership of the opposition was assumed by the architect Belaunde, who organized a new mass party: People's Action,which was preparing for the next general election, where he would have prominence. The newspapers El Comercio y La Prensa also made opposition, which could not counter La Crónica,a newspaper owned by the Prado family, because it was more oriented to sports and police issues. In the economic order, the biggest problem was budgetary in nature, which had as its origin the recession produced in the United States in 1957. Export products were significantly depreciated and dollars were scarce, so the Peruvian currency was devalued. Pedro G. Beltrán,the director of the newspaper La Prensa,then went on to support the government (1959) was appointed as Minister of Finance and President of the Council of Ministers. The mission was to put finance in order, balance the budget and stabilize the currency, which was achieved, not without first adopting anti-popular measures such as rising gasoline,cutting food subsidies and increasing the tax burden. It was a liberal policy.

In those years the migrations of the mountains developed a lot and the slums around Lima increased, to the point of talking about the "belt of misery" that was beginning to surround the capital. Overall, Prado did not do much to improve the situation and condition of the national majority that continued to live in terrible conditions.

As the end of government approached, popular discontent was undeniable. The strikes were slashed and boisterous and even violent protests were made in the streets. In addition to economic policy, the president's own personality, pompous and frivolous in difficult times, was criticized.

On a personal level, Prado managed in 1958 for the Catholic Church to annul his marriage to Enriqueta Garland to marry the Limeña lady Clorinda Málaga, which caused little scandal among the conservative sector of Limegna society. In 1961 he was the first foreign head of state to visit Japan after World War II

Later life

Prado left Peru and settled again in Paris. He made a brief visit to his homeland as he commemorated the centenary of the Battle of Callao (May 2, 1966), when he was paid a tribute for being the son of President Mariano Ignacio Prado, who drove to Peru during the last stage of the conflict with Spain in 1865–66. He died in the French capital the following year. He was buried in the Presbítero Maestro Cemetery, next to his father.