Francisco Morales Bermudez (4 October 1921-14 July 2022) was President of Peru from 29 August 1975 to 28 July 1980, succeeding Juan Velasco Alvarado and preceding Fernando Belaunde.
Biography[]
Francisco Morales Bermudez was born in Lima, Peru in 1921, the grandson of Remigio Morales Bermudez. He received a military education before rising to the rank of Brigadier General and serving as Fernando Belaunde's Finance Minister in 1968. He served in the same capacity under socialist strongman Juan Velasco Alvarado from 1969 to 1974, when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Peruvian Army. On 29 August 1975, he led a coup against the sickly Velasco and diverged from Alvarado's socialist tendencies. His regime cracked down on leftist guerrillas, but he failed to enact successful political and economic reform. He held democratic elections in 1980, returning Belaunde to power. He failed in his 1985 presidential bid and was sentenced to life in prison in absentia by Italy in 2017 for the murder of 25 Italian leftists. He died in 2022.