Andrés Zaldívar
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José Andrés Rafael Zaldívar Larraín (born March 18, 1936), popularly known as El Chico Zaldívar ("Zaldívar, the little one"), is a prominent Chilean Christian Democrat politician.
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[edit] Early years
Zaldívar was born in Santiago, Chile. He attended primary and secondary school at the Instituto Alonso de Ercilla de Santiago, a member of the Congregación de los Hermanos Maristas. In 1959 Zaldívar graduated from the Universidad de Chile, having written the thesis "Ley de Arrendamientos: Comentarios y Jurisprudencia," or "Renting Laws, Commentaries and Jurisprudence".
In 1952 Zaldívar began his long political career by joining the Partido Conservador, or Conservative Party. During his time as a university student, he participated in the International Congress of Students in Chicago representing Chile, holding the position of Secretary of the Union of Federated Universities of Chile in 1956. In 1957 he joined the Partido Demócrata Cristiano, Christian Democrat Party, and assumed the position of President of the Youth, of Santiago's Third District.
In the professional field, Zaldívar practiced as a lawyer in the Municipality of Colina, Chile from 1959 to 1962, when he became magistrate of the local police of La Cisterna.
[edit] Political career
In the Eduardo Frei Montalva administration, Zaldívar served as Undersecretary of the Finance from 1964 to 1967. He later became Minister of Economy in 1968 and Biministro de Hacienda y Economía, minister of both finance and economy, in 1970. From 1968 to 1970, Zaldívar served as governor of the Inter-American Development Bank and he was representative to the Interamerican Committee of the Alliance for Progress in Washington D.C. from 1968 to 1969 and representative to the Economic and Social Committee in Caracas in 1970.
During the years of the Unidad Popular coalition, Zaldívar served many different posts within the party: from 1970 to 1973 he was a National Counselor of the Christian Democrats, in 1972 he became a member of the Political Committee, and from 1976 to 1982 he was the president of the Christian Democrats. As such, he became one of the main leaders of the opposition to the Pinochet military regime at that time.
[edit] Military regime
In 1973, Zaldívar for the first time became a member of the National Congress of Chile, upon election to the Senate of Chile for the Second Provincial District of Atacama and Coquimbo, joining the Economic Committee of Congress. However, after the Chilean coup of 1973, the National Congress was dissolved on September 21 of that same year. Zaldívar went into exile in Spain with his family. Returning to Chile the following year, Zaldívar became president of his party, the Christian Democrat Party, 1975 to 1982.
In exile, Zaldívar was made President of the International Christian Democrats, an international organization of political parties, from 1981 to 1986, when he became a member of its advisory council. In 1981, furthermore, Zaldívar was a founding member of Center for Research for Ibero-America and Spain (Fundación CIPIE) in Spain, holding the position of President. In 1988, he joined the "No" campaign for the National Plebescite of that year. Also in 1988, Zaldívar again became the president of his party for another two years.
[edit] Administrations of the Concertación
In 1989, Zaldívar was elected Senator for the VII District of West Santiago, in one of the most hard-fought elections in history. Zaldívar received 31.27% of the vote while his partner on the list, future president Ricardo Lagos, received 30.62%. Due to Chile's "binominal system" (where parties or coalitions of parties select lists of one or more candidates, and the top candidate from each of the top two lists is elected when the top list gets less than twice the second-place list) and since no concessions could get double the votes of the Democracy and Progress, Andrés Zaldívar and the Independent Democrat Union's Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz, who only received 17.91% of the vote were elected.
At this time, Zaldívar joined the Senate Public Works Committee and presided over the Finance Committee. In December of the same year, he was re-elected Senator with 27.77% of the vote. His partner on the list, Camilo Escalona, received 15.98% principally due to the migration of votes from the left to the candidate of the Communist Party of Chile, Gladys Marín Millie, who received 15.69% of the vote. This allowed Zaldívar to be elected together with the conservative Jovino Novoa, with 20.56% of the vote.
During the second period since the rise of democracy, Zaldívar participated in the Constitution, Legislation, Justice, and Regulation Committees and presided over the Interior Administration Committee. In March of 1998, Zaldívar was elected President of the Senate, a post that he held until March 15, 2004.
In 1999, Zaldívar was a candidate for President of Chile, representing the Christian Democrat Party for the primary election of the Chilean presidential election of that year. Meanwhile, the coalition PPD/PS (Party for Democracy and Socialist Party of Chile) elected Ricardo Lagos as its primary candidate. In that year, the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (the Concertación) held a primary to decide between the two. Lagos won the vote, with 71.3% of the vote to Zaldívar's 28.7%.
In 2005, Zaldívar ran for the third consecutive time for the Senate seat of West Santiago in the Chilean parliamentary election, 2005 of December 11, facing the Deputy Guido Girardi (PPD) (his coalition partner on the list), the Senator Jovino Novoa (UDI), and the businessman Roberto Fantuzzi (Independent); the last two members of the Alliance for Chile coalition. Despite a strong campaign, Zaldívar did not retain his seat in the senate, although he exceeded the top candidate of his opponents' list, since the Democratic Coalition's votes did not double that of the Alliance for Chile, fellow Democratic Coalition member Guido Girardi was elected and Alliance for Chile member, the founder and president of Independent Democrat Union, Jovino Novoa was reelected.
However, in later days, Zaldívar became a leader and chief strategist of Michelle Bachelet's presidential campaign. After the victory of the socialist candidate Bachelet, Zaldívar was appointed as her Minister of the Interior.
[edit] References
- (Spanish) Official website of Andrés Zaldívar
- (Spanish) Government Biography
| Preceded by Raúl Sáez Sáez |
Finance Minister of Chile 1968-1970 |
Succeeded by Américo Zorrilla Rojas |
| Preceded by Patricio Aylwin |
President of the Christian Democrat Party 1976-1982 |
Succeeded by Gabriel Valdés Subercaseaux |
| Preceded by Patricio Aylwin |
President of the Christian Democrat Party 1989-1991 |
Succeeded by Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle |
| Preceded by Sergio Romero |
President of the Senate 1998-2004 |
Succeeded by Hernán Larraín |
| Preceded by Francisco Vidal Salinas |
Interior Minister of Chile 2006 |
Succeeded by Belisario Velasco Baraona |
