Federico Errázuriz Zañartu

Federico Errázuriz Zañartu

Federico Errázuriz Zañartu (born April 25, 1825 in Santiago de Chile , † July 20, 1877 ibid) was a Chilean politician . From 1871 to 1876 he was President of his country.

Life

Errázuriz attended school in Santiago and then studied theology at the seminary , in 1844 he decided against a career as a priest, married and moved to the Universidad de Chile , where he studied law and passed the bar exam in 1846.

In 1847 he was accepted by the law faculty of the university, and in 1848 by the theological faculty. Despite his involvement in church matters, Errázuriz clearly opposed the church monopoly in education that prevailed in Chile at the time. With these clearly liberal positions, Errázuriz made many enemies in the clerical-conservative circles of the Revista Católica .

The political upheavals in Europe in 1848 with their revolutions in France , Austria and Germany also influenced Errázuriz, who more and more joined the ideals of the liberals and turned to active political life. In 1849 he was first elected to the House of Representatives as a representative of a constituency in the province of Colchagua . Together with young liberal campaigners, Federico Errázuriz Zañartu founded the Reform Club ( Club de la Reforma ) in October 1849 , which advocated more equality in society.

On November 7, 1850, Errázuriz was charged with being involved in uprisings in San Felipe. He was imprisoned in Chacabuco prison and, after paying a sum of money , was taken into exile in Peru on November 26th, along with his wife and newborn son, later President Federico Errázuriz Echaurren .

In January 1851 he returned to Chile and spent the time until April 20th on his estate in Colchagua. Then he traveled to Santiago and took part in the uprising of Colonel Pedro Urriola. As a result, Congress withdrew his parliamentary seat and sentenced him to death. However, Errázuriz was able to flee in time for the execution .

Thanks to the good relations of his family, he was not able to face justice until November 1852. Before a court martial he denied any involvement in the uprising and, thanks to favorable testimony, was acquitted on December 1, 1852 for lack of evidence.

Errázuriz stayed with the reform-loving Bishop of Valdivia and supported him in the conflict with President Manuel Montt Torres . In 1856 he and some companions planned a popular uprising in the event that the president should remove the bishop from office. This private agreement made the rounds in the city and was also noted by the military intelligence service, although it was not noticed until 1857 in higher places. Then the reaction hit Errázuriz all the harder: Without further proceedings, he was withdrawn from his mandate, which he had won in 1855, because of conspiracy. Subsequent legal proceedings proved him right, but not until July 1858.

In November 1857 Federico Errázuriz took part in the founding of the Liberal Party, but remained without a mandate in the elections of March 1858. He turned to the management of family property and also worked as a lawyer. He also supported the Society for Elementary Education ( Sociedad de Instrucción Primaria ) and was appointed to the advisory board of the Chilean State Bank. In July 1862 the law faculty of the university took him back into their ranks.

In May 1864 he was appointed mayor of Santiago. He soon gave up this post when President José Joaquín Pérez Mascayano appointed him Minister of Justice, Culture and Education in September of the same year. In January 1865 he also took over the Ministry of War and the Navy for a short time .

Undeterred, Errázuriz fought for a fundamental reform of the constitution of 1833 and overlooked the enactment of a commercial code that came into force on November 25, 1865. As Minister of War, he was responsible for the Chilean military leadership in the war with Spain of 1865. During his tenure as minister, major reforms of the military training system in Chile as well as the pay of soldiers fell . The research activities in the south of the country and the active conquest of Araucania also took place under his aegis.

In March 1867, Errázuriz was elected MP and Senator for the constituency of Ovalle and was able to prove in the following years that, despite his wild youthful deeds, he had what it takes to be president. In 1871 he won the presidential election and took office on September 18.

The impulsive choleric Errázuriz, whose aggressive demeanor had disturbed many contemporaries and biographers, surprisingly knew how to use his power skillfully as president. He expanded the country's infrastructure, such as the railway network, which was expanded during his tenure in the south from Curicó to Chillán and Talcahuano . The capital Santiago owes to him and the mayor Vicuña Mackenna appointed by him, the park-like design of the Cerro Santa Lucía and the green areas, which today count as Parque O'Higgins among the most popular recreational destinations in the city.

In terms of foreign policy, he fundamentally reformed the foreign service of Chile by setting up a foreign ministry for the first time to coordinate the country's various diplomatic efforts and ensure continuity in foreign relations.

In July 1873, the liberal-conservative government coalition broke up after a conflict over the supervision of school exams. In 1875, radicals and liberals formed the Liberal Alliance ( Alianza Liberal ), with the support of which Errázuriz was finally able to pass his long-cherished constitutional reform. This was the first time that freedom of association and assembly was constitutionally guaranteed in Chile. The president also had to give up power to parliament.

Furthermore, the criminal law, which until then had applied from the Spanish colonial era, was revised and recorded in a separate Chilean penal code ( Código Penal ) in 1874 . The judicial system was also reorganized.

In 1876 Aníbal Pinto Garmendia was elected as his successor. Less than a year after taking office, Federico Errázuriz Zañartu died at the age of 52.

Web links

Commons : Federico Errazuriz Zañartu  - collection of images, videos and audio files