Sergio Onofre Jarpa Reyes (8 March 1921 – 19 April 2020) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an right-wing politician who served as one of the founders of the National Renewal party.

Biography

Coming from a rural background, he studied agriculture at the

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.

. He first became involved in politics in the 1950s, initially with the youth movement of the

Agrarian Labor Party The Agrarian Labor Party (, PAL) was a Chilean political party supporting the candidacy of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo for the 1952 presidential election. Formed in 1945, it was dissolved in 1958. It was formed in 1945 from the merger of the Agrar ...

before becoming involved in the National Action with Jorge Prat. He was instrumental in the formation of the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

in 1966 and served as leader of the opposition to the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

government and, from 1971, editor of the anti-socialist journal ''Tribuna''. Elected to the

Senate of Chile The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile. Composition According to the present Constitution of Chile, the Senate is composed of forty ...

in the 1973 election, Jarpa became a diplomat following the

1973 Chilean coup d'état The 1973 Chilean coup d'état () was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist ...

, serving as a delegate to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and before becoming ambassador to

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

(1976-1978) and then

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

(1978-1983). Jarpa was appointed

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in 1983 with special orders to open dialogue with the opposition, which had organised under the name Democratic Alliance. This policy of appeasement was quickly abandoned by Pinochet however. He held the post until 1985. He formed his own political movement, the National Labour Front (''Frente Nacional del Trabajo''), in 1985 and this group was one of the three that formed National Renewal two years later. He returned to the Senate as a representative of this new party in 1990. Alongside his political career Jarpa was a noted author on socio-political topics and he was awarded the ''Premio al Mérito Geopolítico'' by the Chilean Institute of

Geopolitics Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of State (polity), states: ''de fac ...

in 1991. He died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

on 19 April 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Chile The worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 () severely affected Chile. The virus was confirmed to have reached Chile on 3 March 2020. Initial cases had been imported from Sou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarpa, Sergio Onofre 1921 births 2020 deaths Ministers of the interior of Chile Chilean anti-communists Agrarian Labor Party politicians National Party (Chile, 1966) politicians Members of the National Labour Front (Chile) Popular Socialist Vanguard politicians National Action (Chile, 1963) politicians National Renewal (Chile) politicians People from Rengo University of Chile alumni Candidates for President of Chile Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile Ministers of the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990) Chilean expatriates in Colombia Senators of the XLVII Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Senators of the XLVIII Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Chilean Roman Catholics