Justiniano Borgoño

Justiniano Borgoño Castañeda (5 September 1836 – 27 January 1921) was a Peruvian brigadier general and politician who served as the President of Peru, an office he held for four months in 1894. The son of a brigadier general in the Peruvian Army, Borgoño left behind agricultural administration to join the Army following the outbreak of the Peruvian Civil War of 1856–1858. He returned to military service nearly twenty years later to serve in the War of the Pacific, during which he survived a leg wound and being taken as a prisoner of war for three months.

During the War of the Pacific, Borgoño declared loyalty to General Andrés Avelino Cáceres, who later appointed him as his Minister of War and Navy. He went on to become President Remigio Morales Bermúdez's Second Vice President. As a result of military intervention, as well as the influence of Cáceres, Borgoño supplanted the First Vice President, Pedro Alejandrino del Solar, and became the President of Peru in April 1894. Borgoño quickly called for general elections, allowing Cáceres' reelection in August of that year. After his presidency, Borgoño retired to Ancón, Lima, where he died in 1921.

Early life Borgoño was born on 5 September 1836 in Trujillo, Peru. His father, , was born in Petorca, Chile; he was a veteran of the Peruvian War of Independence and reached the rank of brigadier general in the Peruvian Army. His mother, Manuela Castañeda y Madalengoitia, was a native of Trujillo.

Borgoño began his education at the , a school in Trujillo, in 1847. Five years later, he finished his schooling there and took over the administration of his family's plantation in the Chicama Valley. He would remain at Tulape for four years, where he was described as an uncommonly hard worker. He was married to Jesús Salas de la Torre Urraca.

Military career In 1856, at the age of twenty, Borgoño left Tulape and joined the Peruvian Army as a lieutenant. thumb Borgoño in 1881Although Borgoño had promised not to take up arms following his release, he was appointed General Commander of La Libertad in July 1881, a position he held until the following June. Later, Iglesias and Andrés Avelino Cáceres entered into conflict due to Iglesias' calls for peace through the cessation of territory to Chile; despite Borgoño's previous service under Iglesias, he declared loyalty to Cáceres and relocated to Tarma, where he took control of the 2nd Zepita Battalion. In Tarma, he was again injured during the Battle of Huamachuco, the final major battle of the War of the Pacific. he held this position until the following year. who had personally selected Morales Bermúdez to serve as president. del Solar, on the other hand, was part of Cáceres' opposition and an ally of Nicolás de Piérola.

Prior the end of his first term as president, Morales Bermúdez contracted an illness and died suddenly on 1 April 1894. As First Vice President, del Solar was constitutionally indicated to become the next president. However, Second Vice President Borgoño leapt the established line of succession and became the 29th president of Peru the same day as Morales Bermúdez's death. Borgoño's ascent to president has alternatively been attributed to the influence of Cáceres, who sought to again become president, and to military intervention on Borgoño's behalf. After being supplanted, del Solar went into hiding in Arica. Borgoño's presidency is generally regarded as being a means for Cáceres to once again become president. He was buried at the San Juan de la Cruz barracks. A street in Miraflores, Lima, was renamed in his honor; Calle General Borgoño extends eleven blocks and is interrupted by the Huaca Pucllana. Additionally, a bust depicting him was erected in his hometown of Trujillo in 2013. It was later stolen from its pedestal.