Mariano Ignacio Prado (18 December 1825-5 May 1901) was President of Peru form 28 November 1865 to 7 January 1868 (interrupting Pedro Diez Canseco's terms) and from 2 August 1876 to 23 December 1879 (succeeding Manuel Pardo and preceding Luis La Puerta).
Biography[]
Mariano Ignacio Prado was born in Huanuco, Peru in 1825, and he joined the Peruvian Army in 1853. He fought in Ramon Castilla's liberal revolution of 1854 and helped defeat Jose Rufino Echenique's conservative government at the Battle of La Palma in 1855. He went on to serve as a liberal deputy, and, in 1865, he led a nationalist uprising against President Juan Antonio Pezet after he signed a peace with Spain during the Chincha Islands War. Prado assumed the presidency from 1865 to 1868, overseeing the defeat of the Spanish Navy at the Battle of Callao on 2 May 1866. Chile made Prado an honorary general for leading Peruvian, Chilean, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian forces to victory over Spain. He was later elected President in 1876 and oversaw the Peruvian war effort against Chile during the War of the Pacific. While on a trip to New York to obtain weapons, he was deposed by Nicolas de Pierola, and his son Leoncio Prado was executed by Chile as their forces occupied Lima; two other sons also lost their lives in the war. Prado was exonerated after the war's end and died in Paris in 1901. His son Manuel Prado Ugarteche later served as President.