Leoncio Prado Gutiérrez

He was born in Huánuco. He was son of the then colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado (later general and president of Peru in the periods 1865-1868 and 1876-1879) and María Avelina Gutiérrez. He would be the firstborn of his father, of the six children he would later have, not of the same mother. The last brother he would have, Manuel Prado Ugarteche, would also be president of Peru (periods 1939-1945 and 1956-1962).

From an early age he was attracted to the military career. His father, who at that time was the commander of the Lanceros de la Unión regiment (Union Lancers Regiment), allowed him to enter that military corps at the age of 8 years, having the rank of corporal at 9 years old. In 1865 he participated in the victorious revolution led by his father against President Juan Antonio Pezet. After the war he began studies at the College of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

At the age of thirteen he left his school to fight against the Spaniards in the squadron that sailed to the south of Chile and participated in the Battle of Abtao, where he was promoted to guardiamarina. Then he participated in the Battle of Callao in 1866 and was then promoted to the rank of ensign.

At the age of 21, he went to Cuba to participate in the fight for the independence of the Caribbean country. There he became a soldier of the so-called Ten Years' War. He then fought under the orders of Máximo Gómez and alongside leaders such as Antonio Maceo Grajales and José Maceo, Guillermo Moncada and others on the Eastern front.

In November 1876, almost without weapons or ammunition, Leoncio Prado and ten other men captured the Spanish steam Moctezuma, with the objective of taking the war to the sea. He raised the Cuban flag on the ship and renamed it Céspedes. He was pursued by several Spanish warships and after a time of persecution he was forced to self-sink his ship. Due to his actions in the war, he is granted the rank of colonel of the Cuban army.

When Leoncio Prado was 26 years old, the war with Chile broke out and the young officer returned to Peru to defend his country. He participated in the navy and then in the army, forming part of the Tacna guerrillas.

Leoncio Prado died in the Battle of Huamachuco in 1883, in the course of the War of the Pacific.[1]

The Leoncio Prado Military Academy is named after him.