Pedro M. Oliveira

Pedro Máximo Oliveira Sayán (Lima; — Buenos Aires; ) was a Peruvian lawyer, jurist, professor, diplomat and politician. He served as Minister of Justice, Instruction, Worship and Charity (1926–1929), Minister of Foreign Affairs, rector of the University of San Marcos (1941–1946) and Minister of Public Instruction (1939–1943). He promoted the educational reform of 1941.

Biography He completed his basic studies at the Colegio de la Inmaculada, run by Jesuit priests. He then entered the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM; 1900-1905). He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political and Administrative Sciences (1902) and in Jurisprudence (1903). He received a doctorate in Jurisprudence and qualified as a lawyer in 1905.

He began his teaching career at the UNMSM's Law School (1908), as a professor of Philosophy of Law, Civil Law (monographic course), History of Peruvian Law and Roman Law.

In February 1916 he married Maria Amelia Lawezzari.

From 1920 to 1922, under the second government of Augusto B. Leguía, he served as minister plenipotentiary in Colombia, a period under which the controversial Salomón-Lozano Treaty was signed in Lima, which resolved the Colombian-Peruvian territorial dispute.

He was dean of the (1924-1925) and representative of Peru before the government of Bolivia (1925-1926). In this capacity, he issued the university statute of July 25, 1928, which suppressed university autonomy, alleging that it was only an instrument for universities to were dominated by minorities.

Oliveira left the position of minister on March 6, 1929. He chaired the Instruction Commission of his chamber.

In 1933 he was a member of the advisory commission on Foreign Relations. (from December 8, 1939 to April 28, 1943), and as such, he promoted educational reform, through the organic law of public education of April 1, 1941. This was done through the so-called "delegated legislation", which is when Congress allows technical commissions to prepare laws of a specialized nature and omits to enter into the detailed discussion of them.

He died on June 18, 1958.

Selected works He is the author of numerous academic works, be they legal, historical, sociological, educational, etc. Jose Oliveira Lawezzari, married Ingrid Schwend, daughter of former SS member Friedrich Schwend, with whom he had two daughters. The marriage became the focus of a highly-publicised murder trial that lasted from May to July 1965 after Schwend voluntarily confessed to local law enforcement that she fatally shot José Manuel de Sartorius y Bermúdez de Castro on the night of December 14, 1963, claiming self-defence.

According to Schwend, represented by Senator David Aguilar Cornejo, she had been pursued by Sartorius in his white Morris Mini-Minor while she was driving her cherry Buick late at night, returning from a date with a lawyer despite being married. After she stepped out of her vehicle, he forced himself on her, after which she pulled out a handgun from her purse and shot the alleged stranger up to six times.

This version of events was challenged by Raúl Peña Cabrera, who represented Olenka Dudek, a Polish-Peruvian socialite and widow of Sartorius. He claimed that both parties had scheduled a date and that Oliveira had shot Sartorius out of jealousy, despite the couple's open marriage. This version of events was also shared by the Peruvian Investigative Police (PIP), but opposed by the general public, who overwhelmingly supported Schwend's story. Schwend was ultimately found guilty, with her husband being ordered to pay Sartorius' widow S/. 40,000, and sentencing her to five years in prison, which were decreased to three for her good conduct, after which she divorced her husband.