Leoncio Prado Gutiérrez, was a Peruvian soldier, was born in Huánuco on August 26, 1853 and died in Huamachuco on July 15, 1883 . He was the son of General Mariano Ignacio Prado y Ochoa and María Avelina Gutiérrez. From a very young age he showed signs of great courage and a strong and enterprising temperament, so much so that he abandoned his studies at the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe school, managing to be admitted as a soldier in the regiment “Lanceros de la Union” (1862). He attended in Arequipa (1865) the revolutionary pronouncement of his father and, in the port of Arica, he took part in the capture of the gunboat "Tumbes" , later joining the crew of the frigate «Amazonas» , with which he landed in Ica and participated in the march on Lima. Triumphant the revolution he was recognized as a midshipman, attending the combat of Abtao on February 7, 1866 . Promoted to the frigate ensign class, he entered the Military and Naval School. After completing his training (1867) he joined the hydrographic expedition of the Amazon, commanded by John Tucker, and remained for two years in the river station of Iquitos.
Leoncio Prado's support for other independence movements
He traveled to the United States in 1873 to study engineering at the Richmond Military Academy but, interested in the Cuban liberation movement, he joined the island's struggle for its independence (1874-1876), obtaining the degree of colonel for his conduct in battle . On November 7, 1876, in Kingston, with a group of ten Cuban patriots, he captured the Spanish merchant ship "Moctezuma" , being pursued by three powerful Hispanic units. On the Honduran coast he was forced to set fire to the ship, since he no longer had any escape. While in the United States, he was surprised by the capitulation of Cuba and decided to embark for the Philippines, with the intention of fighting for its independence . Due to the shipwreck of his ship and to avoid the persecution of Spain, he traveled, under an assumed name, through the seas of East and South Asia, through India and Arabia; he went to Egypt, Palestine, Russia, Italy and Belgium, and by 1878 he returned to the United States.
Leoncio Prado in the war with Chile
In the United States he was commissioned by his father, then president of Peru, to acquire weapons to face the conflict with Chile . In fulfillment of this mission, Leoncio Prado arrived in Callao in August 1879 and immediately joined a squadron of torpedo boats in charge of defending Arica. In command of the battalion “Guerrilleros de Vanguardia” , he intervened in the battle of Alto de la Alianza (May 26, 1880), covering the retreat and tirelessly harassing the invader, to favor the reunion of the dispersed. he fought until he had not a single bullet left and was taken prisoner; led to the town of San Bernardo, a few kilometers south of Santiago, he remained there until the occupation of Lima (January 1881) . He was released under the promise not to join the army again, back in Lima, he moved to the Sierra de Canta, to organize resistance groups. Cáceres entrusted him with the command of the first division, with which he participated in the battle of Huamachuco (July 10, 1883), where he was wounded in the left knee by a grenade, falling prisoner again . He was hidden in a shack by his orderlies, but two days later he was discovered by a Chilean patrol and taken to Huamachuco. He was sentenced to death and, in a gesture that has gone down in history, he himself was in charge of directing his execution .