Francisco Morales-Bermúdez Cerruti is a Peruvian general who served as the President of Peru between 1975 and 1980, after deposing his predecessor, General Juan Velasco. His grandfather and all his original family were from the old Peruvian department of Tarapacá, which is now part of Chile. Unable to control the political and economic troubles that the nation faced, he was forced to return power to civilian rule, marking the end of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces, installed by a coup d'etat on 3 October 1968. At age, he is currently the oldest living former Peruvian president.
Early years
Born in Lima in 1921, he is the son of Army Colonel Remigio Morales Bermúdez and grandson of ex-President Remigio Morales Bermúdez. He received most of his education at Lima's Colegio Inmaculada. In 1939, he was accepted to the Escuela Militar de Chorrillos. After his graduation, he was an important member of the Centro de Altos Estudios Militares.
Political career
Bermúdez achieved the rank of Brigadier General and was appointed to his first political post in 1968 as minister of finance in the administration of Fernando Belaúnde. Internal problems in government forced him to resign after two months. In 1968, after Belaúnde had been deposed by a coup, the military government led by Velasco asked him to return to the post of Minister of Finance. In 1974, he resigned again, this time because he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Peruvian Army. In 1975, he was appointed to be both Prime Minister and Minister of War. With Velasco's health deteriorating, Morales Bermúdez led a military coup against General Velasco and took over as President of Peru on 29 August 1975, leading the country through one of its most severe economic crises. He diverged from the socialist-leaning tendencies of first phase of the Peruvian Revolution, proclaiming a 'Second Phase' that would lead to a return to democracy.
Legacy
The failure of his political and economic reforms was a severe blow to his administration, hampered by constant political pressure from all sides. A Constitutional Assembly was created in 1978, which replaced the 1933 Constitution enacted during Óscar R. Benavides's presidency; he also called for national elections the next year. After the 1980 National Elections he turned power over to a legally established government, headed by President Fernando Belaúnde. After his presidency, he kept a relatively low profile in Peruvian politics, making sporadic speeches regarding the situation of the army. In 1985, he made an unsuccessful run for the presidency, obtaining a fraction of one percent of the vote. Morales Bermudez was prosecuted by Italian judge Luisianna Figliolia for the forced disappearance of 25 Italian citizens in the context of Operation Condor, a campaign of political oppression against leftists orchestrated by the right-wingdictatorships of South America in the 1970s.. On 17 January 2017, the Corte d'Assise in Rome found Morales Bermúdez guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
