The Consolidation of Casta Rule

This chapter explores the consolidation of a new form of political organization in the Chachapoyas region in the early decades of the twentieth century. Circa 1920 changes in the national social structure brought a new national leader to power—Augusto Leguía. Drawing upon huge sums of money borrowed from US banks, Leguía provided unprecedented support to his elite clients in the Chachapoyas. In so doing, he changed the balance of power between longstanding elite factions and allowed one faction to prevail over the rest. By the time Leguía fell from power in 1930 his clients in the Chachapoyas region—the Pizarro-Rubio—had done something that had not formerly been possible. They had eliminated the region’s opposing elite factions. In so doing, they permanently transformed the region’s class structure. Leguía and his administration had sacropoliticial ambitions and plans.