El Tacnazo was a military coup launched by then Peruvian Prime Minister, General Francisco Morales Bermúdez against the administration of President Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado in 1975. This led to what is known in Peru as the "Second Phase" of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces (1968–1980).
Development
The coup was planned as a military uprising in the southern city of Tacna, supported unanimously by several of the most prominent members of the Peruvian Armed Forces.
After an improvised speech in the Tacna Plaza de Armas, Gen. Morales Bermúdez urged President Velasco to leave office peacefully and avoid a direct confrontation. President Velasco, already having come down with illness, resigned after realising that little could be done to resist. He died in 1977.
Following these events, a purge in the Army saw most of Velasco's supporters forced to resign or leave their commissions.
Aftermath
The Morales Bermúdez administration proved unable to continue with the original leftist military government program. President Morales Bermúdez did not continue with what was supposed to be the "Revolution", but his own program, which was supposed to mitigate the pseudo-Communist experiments of Velasco's administration.
He was forced to call a Constitutional Assembly (which was led by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre) and new elections.