21 Facts About Casto Arguedas

Casto Arguedas was a Bolivian military officer who held the position of Commander in Chief of the Bolivian Army on two occasions in 1879 and between 1885 and 1887.

In 1841, Arguedas was going to finish his university studies when the second Peruvian invasion of Bolivia took place.

General Jose Ballivian wanted to reward the heroic performance of the young Casto Arguedas and awarded him the rank of lieutenant, with which the young officer campaigned in Peru when the Bolivian Army occupied the departments of Puno, Arequipa and Moquegua.

In 1847, Casto Arguedas, who held the rank of captain, was to become a crucial figure in the rise of Manuel Isidoro Belzu.

Casto Arguedas, seeing himself victorious, decided to join other forces that had revolted in Oruro in favor of Belzu, and set off in that direction.

Casto Arguedas lived retired from the army for about ten years and went to Peru to a small town near the border and stretched out on the barren slopes of a gray mountain range, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

For instance, when she learned through her loyal servant that her husband was arming the employees of the house and the indigenous workers of the hacienda to kill Casto Arguedas, she went to the farm to inform her lover of what had happened and to warn him of the imminence of the attack.

Casto Arguedas is said to not have been intimidated and, loading his weapon, he remained waiting for the attack, despite the fact that the lovers could have well fled to the safety of the nearby town of Huancane.

Every shot Casto Arguedas fired caused either death or a mortal wound.

Casto Arguedas was imprisoned for nine months; however, the chaotic and almost anarchic internal politics of Peru allowed him to flee back to Bolivia.

Casto Arguedas secretly entered Bolivia, settling on a distant valley and went to live in the small town of Araca, where he bought some land that would later become a vast estate.

Colonel Casto Arguedas was acclaimed by the popular masses of La Paz and proclaimed provisional President of Bolivia, being granted the rank of brigadier general.

Casto Arguedas organized an army of two thousand men, known as the Constitutionalist Army, while Melgarejo was in Potosi crushing another rebellion against him.

Casto Arguedas undoubtedly had the intention of waiting for Melgarejo behind the barricades he had ordered built in La Paz.

Casto Arguedas entrenched himself in Viacha, determined to wait there for the enemy and wage a pitched battle.

Casto Arguedas returned to the country during the government of Tomas Frias, in 1874, and took part in some revolutionary movements against the Government.

When General Hilarion Daza became president, Casto Arguedas returned to Bolivia.

Casto Arguedas was given the position of Commander in Chief of the Bolivian Army, and, for this reason, he was recognized with the rank of brigadier general, given to him by the people back in 1865 and unrecognized until then.

Casto Arguedas held the prefecture of La Paz when War of the Pacific started in 1879; then, Arguedas, resigned from civil office and was appointed by Daza as Commander of the Second Division of the army.

Casto Arguedas then returned to La Paz again, this time with the mission of making Colonel Miguel Armaza the commander of the Murillo battalion, an act that could not be carried out because Casto Arguedas had been arrested during the riot that broke out in Viacha on March 12,1880.

In 1887, Casto Arguedas chose to retire due to his declining health, retiring to his hacienda of Araca, where he died in 1888, at age of 68 years old.