Francisco Antonio Pinto

Francisco Antonio Pinto

Signature of Francesco Antonio Pinto

Francisco Antonio Pinto Díaz (born July 23, 1785 in Santiago de Chile , † July 18, 1858 ibid) was a Chilean politician . From 1827 to 1829 he was President of his country.

Life

Pinto studied law at the Real Universidad de San Felipe until 1806 . He was married to Luisa de Garmendia y Aldunate, his son Aníbal Pinto Garmendia served as President of Chile from 1876 to 1891, his daughter Enriqueta married Manuel Bulnes Prieto , who was President of Chile from 1841 to 1851.

Pinto initially devoted himself to a life as a businessman, which often led him to Lima in Peru . It was there that in 1811 he received news of the Chilean declaration of independence by the First Junta . The following year he returned to Chile and was sent by the junta to Buenos Aires , Argentina , as Chile’s diplomatic representative . In 1813 he traveled to England on behalf of the government in order to obtain political recognition of the Chilean independence from Spain by the European powers . He supported the struggle for independence in Peru until 1824, when he returned to Chile, he took over the office of Intendente of Coquimbo and served as Chile's interior and foreign minister .

On May 8, 1827, President Ramón Freire y Serrano resigned and Pinto, who was vice-president at the time, took office. He was faced with a difficult situation as the political antagonism between the liberals, who wanted to give the regions far-reaching freedoms, and the conservatives, who advocated a strong central power, worsened. A constituent assembly convened in 1828, and its proposals continued to fire. In the presidential election, Pinto saw himself confirmed by the liberal majority in Congress, but the elections for vice-president resulted in a stalemate . Congress convened the liberal Joaquín Vicuña, whereupon the Conservatives, led by José Joaquín Prieto Vial, began the so-called revolution of 1829 . In the face of a politically unsubstantiated situation, Pinto resigned and handed over the office - since no generally accepted Vice President was appointed - to the President of the Congress Francisco Ramón Vicuña Larraín in accordance with the constitution .

At the subsequent civil war between liberals and conservatives Pinto did not participate. He withdrew into private life. Only when Prieto's successor Manuel Bulnes Prieto , Francisco Pinto's son-in-law, publicly rehabilitated him, did he return to the public spotlight. From 1843 he represented the constituency of La Serena in the House of Representatives, whose chair he then took over. From 1846 until his death, he also sat in the Senate and served as its President.

Web links

Commons : Francisco Antonio Pinto  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Biography at the National Congress (Spanish)