Arturo Frei

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Arturo Frei Bolivar (born November 18, 1939) is a Chilean political figure, a former senator and presidential candidate in the 2000 election.

He was born in Santiago, son of Arturo Frei Montalva and of Marcela Bolívar Le Fort. His uncle was Eduardo Frei Montalva, who would become president of Chile in 1964. Arturo Frei studied at the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones in Concepción and Santiago. Later he studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, graduating as a lawyer. As a student, he joined the Christian Democrat Party in 1957. Frei married María Beatriz Ruitort Barrenechea, and they have a son: Arturo Eduardo.

For a few years he was assistant professor of tax law, while also working as a lawyer at the Minister of Finance. At the same time he was in participated of the 1964 election that was won by his uncle. After the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, he retired from politics and dedicated himself to private practice, and also to running the ‎Irene Frei Montalva foundation, which provided free daycare for children of poor families.

In 1969, he was elected deputy for Concepción, being reelected in 1973, with one of the highest majorities at the national level. After the return of the democracy, Frei Bolívar was elected senator in 1989 and served as chairman of the Armed Forces Committee where he developed strong links with the military. After Pinochet's arrest, Frei Bolívar visited the general in London and his independent presidential campaign to succeed his cousin Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle was seen as a maneuver by the general to prevent Ricardo Lagos from winning the election. The Progressive Union of the Centrist Center presented Arturo Frei as their candidate for the 1999 presidential elections, where Frei fared disastrously, gaining only 0.35% of the vote, the lowest percentage of any candidate since the end of the military régime.

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