Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez (; 19 May 1896 – 31 August 1986) was the 26th

president of Chile The president of Chile (), officially the president of the Republic of Chile (), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is responsible for both Government of Chile, government administration and s ...

from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

in the crucial presidential election of 1970, which he lost to Salvador Allende. He was the son of Arturo Alessandri, who was president from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1932 to 1938.

Early years

Jorge Alessandri was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

. He studied at Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera, prestigious public high school of Santiago, and

University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, and after graduating in 1919 worked there as a lecturer. After the fall of the parliamentary republic, he lived in

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exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

with his parents from 1924 to 1925, but returned to his native land where he was elected to parliament as an independent from a Santiago constituency in 1926. He withdrew from public life in 1932 to concentrate on business interests, becoming president of the

mortgage bank A mortgage bank is a bank that specializes in originating and/or servicing mortgage loans. In the United States, a mortgage bank is a state-licensed banking entity that makes mortgage loans directly to consumers. The difference between a mortgag ...

, ''Caja de Crédito Hipotecario'' until 1938 and running the ''Paper and Cardboard Manufacturing Company''. From 1944 to 1947, he was chairman of the Chilean employers' confederation.

Return to politics

The early years of the Presidency of Gabriel González were marked by serious unrest between left and right-wing supporters, and on 2 August 1947 González named a cabinet of military officers and independents in a supposed attempt to depoliticise the situation. Alessandri was named Minister of Finance, where he reordered the system of administration and pursued a rigorous programme of

austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

. By 1950, he had restored order to the public finances and controlled

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

. However, his freezes of

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

remuneration gradually led to greater industrial unrest. Public sector workers came out on strike at the end of January 1950, which rapidly turned into a broad opposition against the government's economic policies. Along with the rest of the cabinet, Alessandri resigned on 3 February, and returned to his role as president of the employers' confederation.

Senate and presidency

Retrato de Jorge Alessandri con banda presidencial

In 1956, the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

selected him as a candidate for a Santiago

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

seat, which he won with a substantial majority in 1957. However, Alessandri was seen as rather

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

by the Liberal Party, and in the end it was the moderate wing of the Conservative Party which secured his position as an independent candidate for the Presidency, with his campaign majoring on his economic expertise. In March 1958, he edged the united left candidate for the Presidency, Salvador Allende by 32.2% to 28.5%, with

Christian Democrat Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian ethics#Politics, Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo ...

Eduardo Frei Montalva Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva (; 16 January 1911 – 22 January 1982) was a Chileans, Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party (Chile), Christia ...

polling 20.5%. In the event of no candidate securing an overall majority of the popular vote, the choice of president fell to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, which duly chose Alessandri, who had a coalition of Conservatives, Liberals and Radical Party congressmen behind him. Alessandri initially focused, unsurprisingly, on economic issues, particularly on controlling inflation and balancing the state budget, and he liberalised Chile's tariff régime. However, he once again froze public sector pay, unleashing widespread industrial unrest. In May 1960, a strong earthquake struck the densely populated area between Concepción and

Puerto Montt Puerto Montt (Mapuche: Meli Pulli) is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago. The commune ...

, causing more than US$400 million in damage. Reconstruction and relief soon drowned out other issues. The earthquake effectively interrupted and ended Lota's

coal miners People have worked as coal miners for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial Revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic ...

march on Concepción as they were demanding higher salaries. In 1961, elections to Congress saw massive losses for the Conservatives and Liberals, with the Radicals, alone of the coalition parties, doing well. This forced Alessandri to nominate more Ministers from the Radical Party, which in turned moved his government to the left. This tied in with the more activist foreign development policy pursued by John F Kennedy in the wake of the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

of 1959, in the shape of the

Alliance for Progress The Alliance for Progress () was an initiative launched by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, that aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico was a close ...

. Together, these unleashed a wave of progressive

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

and agricultural reforms. Despite this, distribution of land ownership remained grossly unequal. Alessandri's period of office ended in 1964, and he was succeeded by his opponent of 1958, the Christian Democrat

. Alessandri returned to managing his paper factory.

Public life after his government

On 3 November 1965, in the press published a letter, supported by 900 firms, where directed to Alessandri to analyze the general reality and highlight his public action, thus starting his second presidential candidacy. Publishing in the press in September 1968, a manifesto to the country -subscribed by Guillermo Feliú Cruz, historian; Hugo Galvez Gajardo, former Minister; Adolfo Silva Henríquez, farmer; Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz, university leader; Eduardo Boetsch G. H., engineer; and Jorge Delano Frederick, reporter requested adhesions to promote the presidential candidacy of Jorge Alessandri. Although Alessandri kept a low profile for most of the 1964-1970 period, he never explicitly ruled out a return to politics. On one occasion he said of the Chilean people: "I perceived, and necessarily, the rumor growing tide of discontent, despair and anxiety, inevitable product of just awakened but unsatisfied aspirations."

Allende's election and Pinochet's dictatorship

In 1970, following the end of Frei's period in office, Jorge Alessandri sought election as President once again, with his main opponent Salvador Allende, just as in 1958. After another close contest, Allende emerged in front this time, by the narrow margin of 37.3% to 35.8%, with Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomić polling 27.9% on polling day, 4 September. As in 1958, the election went to Congress, this time on 24 October. Although Congress placed a number of conditions on Allende such as his signature of a ''Statute of Constitutional Guarantees'', promising not to undermine the Chilean Constitution, Alessandri lost the final vote by a decisive 153–35, with Tomic's Christian Democrats supporting Allende. According to Sergio Riesenberg Alessandri's appearance on TV backfired and cost him the election. On the TV program ''Decisión 70'' directed by Gonzalo Bertrán there were two separate shots that showed him in bad light. In the first Alessandri said that he would be determined and that his "hands would not shake", subsequently the camera focused his hands that were actually shaking. In the second frame he was seen next to a

stove A stove or range is a device that generates heat inside or on top of the device, for - local heating or cooking. Stoves can be powered with many fuels, such as natural gas, electricity, gasoline, wood, and coal. Due to concerns about air pollu ...

warming his legs with a blanket despite being Spring. According to Riesenberg all this gave the public the impression of a man who was not longer "in an adequate age to become president". After the military coup of 11 September 1973 General

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

seized power and formed a government, and in 1976 Alessandri was named President of a newly formed

Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...

, which served as advisor to the Junta in matters of legislation, and which also played a role in the drafting of the new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. The Council suggested changes to the draft prepared by the Ortúzar Committee, but many of the most important recommendations were dismissed by the Junta. Alessandri did not agree with some of the Junta's authoritarian amendments and resigned from the council. The constitution was approved in a national

plebiscite A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or adv ...

held in September 1980 and came into force in March 1981. During the campaign, Alessandri declared he would vote "Yes", despite his disagreements with the Junta.

Final years

After this, Jorge Alessandri once more withdrew into private life, now for the last time, living rather peacefully in his apartment in the center of Santiago. He continued to be

chairman of the board The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...

of a paper factory until his death in

in 1986. He did not live to see the end of the junta and the return of Chile to democracy. His death had some influence in the attempted assassination of Augusto Pinochet by Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front as it made Pinochet travel back to Santiago prematurely changing thus the schedule of the attack. His nephew Arturo Alessandri Besa stood as presidential candidate for the right-wing Alianza in 1993, losing to the Christian Democrat

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz–Tagle (; born 24 June 1942) is a Chilean politician and civil engineering, civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senate of Chile, Senator, fulfilling the role of ...

of the Concertación center-left coalition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alessandri, Jorge 1896 births 1986 deaths Politicians from Santiago, Chile Jorge Alessandri Chilean people of Italian descent Independent politicians in Chile 20th-century presidents of Chile Ministers of finance of Chile Deputies of the XXXV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Senators of the XLIII Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Candidates for President of Chile Chilean anti-communists 20th-century Chilean engineers Children of presidents of Chile Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera alumni University of Chile alumni Chilean Roman Catholics