Mariano Melgarejo

Manuel Mariano Melgarejo Valencia (13 April 1820 – 23 November 1871) was a Bolivian military officer and politician who served as the fifteenth president of Bolivia from December 28, 1864, until his fall on January 15, 1871.

He assumed power in 1864 after staging a coup d'état against president José María de Achá, thus beginning six-year dictatorship, popularly known as the ''Sexenio''. He would cement his power after personally killing former president Manuel Isidoro Belzu in 1865. He was of controversial personality and his dictatorship is remembered in Bolivia mainly for its poor government administration and its abuses against the indigenous population, in addition to having signed unfavorable border treaties with Chile and Brazil in 1866 and 1867, which proved to be devastating in coming years.

On January 15, 1871, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army at the time, General Agustín Morales, along with the support of the people of La Paz, tired of the president's despotic actions for almost seven years, rose up against Melgarejo and deposed him. With the people having risen against Melgarejo, a bloody battle ensued in the city of La Paz which has been considered one of the fiercest and most terrible battles in Bolivian history. At the end of that day, the uprising triumphed over government troops, thus managing ending the Melgarejo regime.

Once ousted from power, Melgarejo fled Bolivia for Chile, where he stayed for a few months. While in Santiago de Chile, he learned that Juana Sánchez, his lover, was living in the city of Lima, Peru. Consequently, Melgarejo decided to leave for that country, but, once he arrived in Lima, he was shot to death on November 23, 1871, by Juana's brother, José Aurelio Sánchez. Provided by Wikipedia