Jorge Alessandri
Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez (Latin American Spanish: [ˈxoɾxe aleˈsandɾi roˈðɾiɣes]; 19 May 1896 – 31 August 1986) was the 26th President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean right 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.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Alessandri and the second or maternal family name is Rodríguez.
Jorge Alessandri
August 31, 1986 (aged 90)
Santiago, Chile
Cementerio General de Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Arturo Alessandri and Rosa Rodríguez
Return to politics[edit]
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.
By 1950, he had restored order to the public finances and controlled inflation. However, his freezes of public sector 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.
Public life after his government[edit]
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[edit]
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 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".[2]
After the military coup of 11 September 1973 General Augusto Pinochet seized power and formed a government, and in 1976 Alessandri was named President of a newly formed Council of State, which served as advisor to the Junta in matters of legislation, and which also played a role in the drafting of the new constitution. 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 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[edit]
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 of a paper factory until his death in Santiago 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.[3]
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 of the Concertación center-left coalition.