Emiliano Figueroa Larraín

Emiliano Figueroa Larraín

Emiliano Figueroa Larraín (born July 12, 1866 in Santiago de Chile , † May 16, 1931 ibid) was a Chilean diplomat and politician . He served twice as president of his country for a short time.

Life

Figueroa was born the sixth of nine children. He attended the Jesuit -Kolleg in Santiago and studied until 1889 at the de Universidad Chile Law . In the same year he married Leonor Sánchez Vicuña, with whom he had four children.

He took up a position in the regional administration of Santiago, where he worked under his wife's uncle, who was a close confidante of President José Manuel Balmaceda . In 1891 he was transferred to San Bernardo, where he was surprised by the uprising against Balmaceda as an ardent supporter of the president.

From 1900 he sat in the Chilean House of Representatives, President Pedro Montt Montt appointed him for a short time in 1907 as Minister of Justice and Education and in 1909 as Minister of the Interior. When President Montt died unexpectedly in Bremen in August 1910 and his vice-president Elías Fernández Albano also died the following month, Figueroa temporarily took over the duties of incumbent president on September 6, 1910.

Even if his presidency was limited in time until the winner of the October elections was constitutionally supposed to take office in December, Figueroa had an important representative function to fulfill. On September 18, 1910, Chile celebrated the centenary of its independence, and Emiliano Figueroa had to chair the extensive festivities with numerous foreign guests of honor.

On December 23, 1910, he handed over the office of Chilean President to the election winner Ramón Barros Luco . He sent him as ambassador to Spain (1911 to 1914) and Argentina (1914 to 1918). After various activities in Chile, the conspirators against President Arturo Alessandri sent him on a secret mission to Argentina to sound out the recognition of a new government. When President Alessandri resigned for the second and last time on October 1, 1925, the victorious coup general Carlos Ibáñez del Campo assembled all party leaders with the exception of the communists and ultimately urged them to choose a moderate (and army-friendly) candidate for the to notify the Chilean Presidency. After negotiations that lasted three days and three nights without interruption, it was decided in favor of Emiliano Figueroa Larraín, who was promptly elected on October 24 for the period up to 1931 and took office on December 23, 1925.

Figueroa did not have the personal format or the political power to assert himself against the military junta and in particular against General Ibáñez, who, pro forma, only acted as minister of war in the Figueroa cabinet, but in reality the army as the all-important power factor in Chilean politics Days represented. The role of the president did not go far beyond that of an elegant puppet figure.

When an open dispute broke out between the leadership of the navy and the army in early 1927 , Figueroa appointed the secret ruler Carlos Ibáñez del Campo as interior minister of a new cabinet; he promptly took a number of drastic measures to "maintain public order": press censorship and arbitrary arrests were the order of the day. Figueroa thereupon also gave up the beautiful appearance, left the authority in the form of the vice-presidency entirely to General Ibáñez and resigned on May 4th.

In 1928 the Ibáñez government sent him to the newly created ambassadorial post in Peru , with which Chile had been enemies for many years as a result of the Saltpeter War. In this position he managed to get the contract wrapped up that finally resolved the territorial disputes over the Tacna and Arica regions . In 1930 Figueroa returned to Santiago to become President of the Central Bank of Chile. On May 16, 1931, he died of the consequences of a car accident on the way to a country trip with friends.

Emiliano Figueroa was considered a grand seigneur who was still clinging to the understanding of the state and politics of the 19th century. In this role he served as the ideal plaything for the ruthless power politicians of his time, for whom he could serve as a decorative fig leaf. Some critics say that the conciliatory and consensus-oriented Figueroa did not even realize for a long time that he was only serving as the victim of an unworthy charade.

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• Biography (spanish)