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VÍCTOR FAJARDO GARCÍA

Víctor Fajardo García, a patriot and distinguished colonel in the Peruvian Army, was born in the city of Ayacucho, Perú on March 23, 1838. He was the son of the Chilean colonel don Manuel Ramón Fajardo—who arrived in Perú with Generalísimo don José de San Martín’s army of liberation that contributed to South America’s independence from Spain. His mother’s name was doña Manuela García.

His primary education took place in Chincha, and at the age of 15 he moved to Ica to carry out the role of an assistant teacher at the city’s top secondary school. Months later, on December 19, 1852, Domingo Elías, the ex-President of the Republic, launched his revolutionary proclamation against President José Rufino Echenique, and Fajardo joined the army with the rank of second lieutenant, making up the official chain of command charged with marshalling the battalions for the next campaign. A senior cadet at the Military Institute, he fought at Saraja Hill (Ica) on January 7, 1854 as part of the revolutionary militiamen contingent that supported Elías against Echenique’s troops. In what resulted a very bloody battle, 150 of Fajardo’s comrades in arms died. Domingo Elías had risen up in revolt in Ica on December 21, 1853 with the title of “chief político” of the revolution that, at the same time, named Ramón Castilla as its “Commander-in-Chief”.

After Saraja, Fajardo followed Ramón Castilla, who also rebelled against Echenique in Arequipa, accompanying him up to the battle of la Palma (Chorrillos-Lima) which took place January 5, 1855, in which he won his stripes as lieutenant. It was in this battle that Fajardo fought next to Andrés Avelino Cáceres, another prominent Haumanguino war heroe.

Once in the service of President Ramón Castillo, in November 1856 he became a member of the army that marched on Arequipa to do combat against the revolt of General Vivanco, and Fajardo was wounded in the assault on the Ciudad Blanca (“White City”). As a result of his participation in Arequipa, in 1857 Fajardo was promoted to the rank of captain. On March 7, 1858 he took part once again in the assault on Arequipa, incited once more to rebel this time by Vivanco against Castilla. There he won the rank of field captain. Further, he took part in the campaign against Ecuador until the Treaty of Mapasingue was signed in 1860. In 1862 he attained the rank of sergeant major.

In February 1865, Castilla was taken prisoner by Pezet and then exiled to Gibraltar and then subsequently to London. This fact had a powerful impact on the national spirit and spawned the new generation of rebel leaders that appeared. In Arequipa, Prefect Mariano Ignacio Prado lead a revolt cloaked in the mantel of Castilla’s name, and Fajardo immediately pledged himself to the movement lead by Colonel Prado, who later would overthrow President General Juan Antonio Pezet. That is when Fajardo won his commission in the rank of sergeant major. That same year, at the age of 27, he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, having taken part in the conflict with Spain in the combat of May 2, 1866 against the Spanish squadron.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF VÍCTOR FAJARDO GARCÍA

Coronel Víctor Fajardo acquired historical importance for his heroic participation in the War of the Pacific of 1879. After the Bolivian government threatened to confiscate and clinch the Chilean Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company by a decree on February 1, 1879, a Chilean landing force seized control of Antofagasta on February 14, 1979. By this casus foederis (cf., a situation in which the terms of an alliance come into play, such as one nation being attacked by another), Chile would prosecute the War of the Pacific, and when Lima first got word of this act, and bearing in mind similar harbingers by past Chilean governments, the Peruvians immediately marshaled military assets. Thus, Fajardo departed Lima first to Callao by train in March of 1879, and from there set sail on the transport ship “Limeña,” a vessel of some 2,008 tons built in 1865, headed to the city of Iquique with the Hunters of Cuzco’s 5th Battalion, that was garrisoned at Chorrillos, a force of 392 conscripts. This transport vessel reached speeds of up to nine knots under the schooner’s rigging. The Hunters of Cuzco Battalion was named part of the First Division, upon orders of Manuel Velarde.

After the battle of Piragua on November 15, 1879, Peruvian General Juan Buendía concentrated the allied army in Santa Adela, to the north of Pozo Almonte. Fajardo with his troops comprised of 414 men, joined in the Battle of San Francisco on November 19, 1879. In the reorganization of the defeated army, Fajardo and his battalion of 410 men were ordered to Pachica, returning to Tarapacá on November 27, 1879, to join in that legendary battle, marching in to the combat zone through Quillahuasa. Fajardo was involved in the retreat and march from Tarapacá to the port of Arica. It was here that he was promoted to coronel and was conferred with the leadership of the Hunters of Rímac Battalion, which had been equipped with American Peabody rifles, long range but arduous to fire. And such was the situation under which he fought at the Battle of Alliance Heights, on May 26, 1880. The battle unfolded on the Intiorko (cf.,in Quechua: ïnti = sun, orqo = hill, mountain, hence “Sunnyhill”) plateau, which is an arid and soft-sloped terrain located a few miles north from Tacna, thus becoming a excellent shooting range. Battle of the Heights Alliance

Fajardo is remembered as having been decked out in full regalia, mounted on a chestnut stallion that he brought back with him from the nitrate fields of Tarapacá, when he entered into the battle. Wounded while on horseback, he continued hand-to-hand combat until a bullet felled him. In the presence of Colonels Belisario Suárez and Andrés Cáceres, heads of the division in battle, Coronel Fajardo’s body and wedding ring were handed over to his son, a second lieutenant in the same battalion. According to biographic data taken from the magazine “Sierra”, (cf. the first biweekly edition, November 1949), it is said “his soldiers loved him because they knew he was a leader capable of any and all sacrifices in service to them. His peers were aware of his huge sense of responsibility which governed his actions. Colleagues and counterparts knew that his loyalty was unwavering”, which he demonstrated over the course of his military career.

Service Record:

Fajardo served in the following institutions: in the Military Institute, in the Ayacucho 3rd, Paucarpata 8th, March 9th, and Puno 12th Battalions. He was head instructor at the La Mar Assembly, in the Pungau 10th Battalion; Deputy Prefect of La Mar, of Chancay, of Huancayo and of Cangallo (where the towns of Perú’s political subdivision of the Province of Víctor Fajardo are located, in the Department of Ayacucho). He was the Prefect of Huánuco, the aide-de-camp to President Prado, Chief of the Hunters of Rímac Battalion. Deputy Chief of the América Battalion, Commander-in-Chief of the Central Division, Judge Prosecutor in the military trial of the commanders and officers from the Bedoya revolution.