Federico L. Barreda

Federico Luciano Barreda y Aguilar was born in Spain and moved to Peru as a boy. His diplomatic career grew out of commerce: he and his elder brother Felipe obtained a contract to market Peruvian guano in the United States, and Federico established an office in Baltimore. Business brought him into American financial and political circles and enabled him to maintain homes in New York and Newport. ¹

Ramón Castilla selected him as a confidential agent to repair relations strained by the seizure of the American ships Lizzie Thompson and Georgiana. Barreda argued that Washington could hardly defend Union authority against secession while recognizing the right of Peruvian insurgents to license guano exports. He presented ministerial credentials to Abraham Lincoln in March 1862. The dispute went to attempted Belgian arbitration, and the American claim was ultimately withdrawn. ²

In Europe during the conflict with Spain, he arranged the purchase of the corvettes América and Unión and protested Miguel Grau’s detention in Britain. Returning to Washington in 1866, he recruited the former Confederate naval officer John Randolph Tucker for Peru’s navy, a controversial choice among Peruvian officers. ^{2, 3}

His confidential letter to Seward of 13 December 1866 conveyed Peru’s acceptance of an American mediation plan after rejecting British and French proposals. He promised efforts to secure the agreement of Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador. When Lima subsequently withheld definitive acceptance, Barreda considered his position compromised and resigned. He later published his account and correspondence in El Ministro del Perú en los Estados Unidos y su Calumniador. ^{4, 2}

Outside government, he pursued shipping, securities, and railroad investments. The crash of 1873 forced him to seek financial help from Felipe. He returned to the United States, lived at Drum Point in Maryland, and developed trading interests linking Central America and San Francisco, where he moved his family. He died in 1883. ¹