[1] The Gutiérrez brothers—Tomás, Silvestre, Marceliano and Marcelino—were four brothers who were originally from the Huancarqui area of Castilla Province in Arequipa and had joined the military, with Tomás distinguishing himself above the others.

The aforementioned brothers were put on trial for the crime of flagellation against Colonel Juan Manuel Garrido and watchman Luis Montejo, respectively.

[1] In 1872, 7,000 well-armed men were at the command of the Gutiérrez brothers' army in Lima, who exaggeratedly considered Pardo's presidency a disaster to their duties.

[1] Balta, then in his final months as president of Peru, sought to continue the military's presence in the government, proposing General José Rufino Echenique for the 1872 elections against civilian Manuel Pardo of the Civilista Party, supported by a majority of Congress.

[1] On the morning of July 22, 1872, Balta met with Tomás Gutiérrez and definitively refused any subversive action in what was described as a "stormy scene."

According to some witnesses, his brother Silvestre acted on his mood, urging him to proceed with the coup as the Congress was on the eve of concluding their qualifying tasks, and Pardo's presidency would begin on August 2.

[1] At 2 p.m., Silvestre, at the head of two companies of the Pichincha battalion, entered the Government Palace and arrested President Balta in the presence of his wife and daughter Daría, who was to be married that afternoon.

Telegrams accepting the new order reached the capital from provinces such as Piura, Trujillo, Ica and Chincha, signed by local military authorities.

[1] On July 26, while taking the tram at San Juan de Dios Station, Silvestre got into an verbal altercation with a pro-Balta crowd, firing at them once with a revolver and wounding protestor Jaime Pacheco, who in turn shot him in the left arm.

[4] It is alleged that in retaliation, Marceliano Gutiérrez, who was guarding Balta in the San Francisco barracks, ordered the assassination of the imprisoned president, although such an assertion has not been proven.

Nonetheless, Balta was riddled with bullets by three riflemen in the early afternoon, while he was resting in his bed after having lunch, and the news of his death quickly spread throughout Lima.

They advanced a few blocks, while they were followed by a mob that shouted threats, and when they reached the La Merced square, the soldiers who arrested him could not protect him any further and hid him in a pharmacy, immediately closing the doors.

The remains were burned in a bonfire located at the center of the square, made from wood taken from Silvestre's bakery on Calle Pescadería (currently Carabaya, next to Government Palace, in the path towards the train station) that was destroyed by the crowd,[7] and in the afternoon a third corpse was thrown into the fire, that of Marceliano.

Tomás's house, located at the Calle de Ortiz (currently the third block of Huancavelica street, between Torrico and Cailloma), was looted and reduced to rubble in both the inside and outside.

Another building—a home and a bakery—belonging to Marceliano also suffered the same fate, this one located at the corner of Calle de las Campanas and Breña streets, under the bridge (first block of Marañón, between Trujillo and Chiclayo.

[9] According to El Nacional, in addition to the aforementioned, the windows and doors of Tomás's house were removed, and water was poured into the building to turn it into a barren terrain.

Tomás's wife was hidden at her mother's house, in the Calle de la Concha (third block of Jirón Ica, where the Municipal Theatre is located).

[7] A jewelry store belonging to a Mr. Leveratto in the Calle Espaderos (fifth block of the Jirón de la Unión) was also attacked, with some claiming Tomás was inside.

[6] Captured days later, he served prison for some time and was released by an amnesty law;[6] he then moved back to his hometown and in 1879 participated in War of the Pacific, rehabilitating himself.