Eduardo Frei Montalva

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(b. Santiago, 13 Aug. 1911; d. 23 Jan. 1982) Chilean; President 1964 – 70, President of Senate 1973 After studying in a seminary and at the Institute of Humanities, Frei read law at the Catholic University of Chile. In 1934 he wrote articles for El Diario Ilustrado and took charge of the daily El Tarapacá de Iquique. In 1937, Frei returned to academia, teaching Labour Law at the Catholic University and Social Policy at the College of Social Service. He became president of the National Falange Party 1941 – 6; and in 1945 served under President Juan Antonio Ríos as Public Works Minister. In 1949 he was elected Senator for Atacama and Conquimbo, and for Santiago in 1957. In 1958, as the presidential candidate of the recently formed (1957) Christian Democrats, Frei came third behind Allende and the victor, Alessandri.

Frei became President of Chile in 1964 when his party won a convincing majority. This was followed by an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies — the first party to do so in 100 years — in the congressional election of 1965. The main highlights of his administration were: the strengthening of the Andean Pact; the kindergarten law; the building of numerous schools and the Lo Pardo tunnel; the expansion of union rights in the agricultural sectors; 250,000 new homes; 56 new hospitals; legal cover for work-related accidents and illness; centres for mothers, neighbourhood associations, and the agrarian reform.

In the economic field the Office of National Planning was founded. Chilean Electricity was nationalized. State-controlled telecommunications and television networks were set up. The "Chileanization" of copper and the extensive Agrarian Reform epitomized Frei's "Revolution in Liberty" — a programme of extensive social change, nationalism, and economic development often described as communitarianism. Frei wrote prolifically. His last piece being The Humanist Message (1981), a year before his death in 1982.

Eduardo Frei Montalva (1911-1982) was president of Chile and one of the most widely known and respected spokesmen for democratic reform in Latin America.

Eduardo Frei was born into a middle-class family in Santiago on January 16, 1911. His father was a Swiss immigrant, his mother, Chilean. Growing up, he was educated in Catholic elementary and secondary schools. In 1928 he entered Santiago's Catholic University to study law, graduating near the top of his class in 1933. Frei was a Chilean delegate in 1934 to the Congress of University Youth, a Catholic conference in Rome, a pivotal moment in Frei's life, for during this gathering he met Pope Pius XI; Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who was later to become Pope Pius XII; and French social philosopher Jacques Maritain. These three men had a profound impact on the young Frei's political philosophy.

Deeply religious and increasingly drawn to politics, Frei became disenchanted with the orientation of the traditional representative of Chilean Catholic thought, the Conservative party. The Conservatives stubbornly resisted change, Frei believed, and were losing strength to new parties that postulated solutions to social problems. Active in the youth group of the party and editor of a newspaper in northern Chile, Frei and fellow youth group members finally broke with the Conservatives. The youth group grew into the National Falange, a party reflecting reformist Catholic thinking. Anti-Marxist and anticapitalist, the Falange sought inspiration in the writings of Maritain and the papal encyclicals of Leo XIII and Pius XI. Under the banner of the Falange, Frei ran in 1937 for a seat in the provincial legislature of Tarapacá, where he was managing the operations of a newspaper in the coastal town of Uquique. In his first run for office, Frei was unsuccessful.

Teaching, Political Inroads

In 1940 Frei became a member of the labor law faculty at the Catholic University while continuing to be an active participant in the affairs of the Falange party, taking the party's presidency in 1941. He was reelected to that post in 1943 and 1945. In May 1946 he was appointed minister of public works and communications in the Popular Front government of President Juan Antonio Ríos, but he resigned in January 1947 after the Ríos government brutally put down a demonstration by Chilean workers. He later was reappointed to the public works post by President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, who had succeeded Ríos. Frei was nationally respected for his efforts to improve Chile's antiquated transportation systems. After running unsuccessfully in several elections, he was finally elected to the Senate in 1949 and reelected in 1957. The Falange and Social Christian Conservative parties joined in 1957 to form the Christian Democratic party.

In 1958 Frei ran for the presidency and, maintaining the party's independence from electoral alliances, came in a third. From 1958 to 1964 the Christian Democrats attracted new recruits, while the rightist parties were discredited by their inability to deal effectively with the worsening national economic crisis. By 1964 Frei had emerged as a serious contender for the presidency and the only alternative to the well-organized and powerful leftist coalition, FRAP. In the election of 1964 Frei decisively defeated Salvador Allende Gossens, the FRAP candidate, receiving an absolute majority of the votes. For the nation Frei promised a "profound revolution within liberty and law": agrarian reform, an end to inflation, Chilean control of the foreign-owned copper industry, expansion of educational facilities, better housing, and incorporation of the masses into the political and economic life of the country. After victories in the congressional elections of 1965, Frei and his party had some degree of success in achieving these goals, although the nationalization of 51 percent of the nation's copper industry proved satisfactory to no one. His attempts at agrarian reform were largely a failure, only a small number of peasants having received their own plots of land by the end of Frei's term. In 1970 Frei was constitutionally unable to succeed himself and gave way to Allende.

Opposed Pinochet Regime

When Allende was overthrown and murdered in 1973 by Chile's right-wing military, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, Frei was initially supportive of the coup. Before long, however, he turned against the repressive Pinochet regime, speaking out against the ruling junta with a freedom accorded few in Chile at that time, a freedom to dissent that some felt was given Frei because of his international standing. In 1978, he led the unsuccessful campaign against Pinochet's plebescite to uphold the legitimacy of the junta's rule. The Pinochet forces carried the day, winning about two-thirds of the votes cast in the ballot.

In 1973, just after winning reelection to another term in Chile's Senate but before the coup against Allende, a probe in Washington by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Intelligence disclosed that the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States had funneled $20 million into Frei's 1964 presidential campaign. These revelations, some of which were and continue to be suspect, came at a difficult time for Frei and for Chile and left many of his countrymen questioning the accuracy of Frei's portrayal of himself as a political centrist.

In his final years, Frei was active as a member of a global commission on international development led by German Willy Brandt. After complications from hernia surgery, Frei died in Santiago on January 22, 1982, less than a week after his seventy-first birthday.

Further Reading

Selections from Frei's many publications can be found in The Ideologies of the Developing Nations, edited by Paul E. Sigmund (1963; rev. ed. 1967), and in sections of Religion, Revolution and New Forces for Change in Latin America, edited by William V. D'Antonio and Frederick B. Pike (1964). Leonard Gross wrote a popular and highly sympathetic study of Frei, The Last, Best Hope: Eduardo Frei and Chilean Democracy (1967). Federico G. Gil, The Political System of Chile (1966), details the development of the party system. A study of Christian Democracy in Latin America is Edward J. Williams, Latin American Christian Democratic Parties (1967).

Further information about Frei's later years can be found in The Annual Obituary 1982, edited by Janet Podell and published by St. Martin's Press, New York, in 1983.

This article is about the Chilean president. For the Antarctic research station of the same name, see Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva.

This is a Spanish name; the first family name is Frei and the second is Montalva.

Eduardo Frei Montalva
28th President of Chile
In office November 3, 1964 – November 3, 1970
Preceded by	Jorge Alessandri
Succeeded by	Salvador Allende
Born	January 16, 1911(1911-01-16) Santiago, Chile
Died	January 22, 1982 (aged 71) Santiago, Chile
Nationality	Chilean
Political party	Christian Democrat
Spouse(s)	María Ruiz-Tagle Jiménez
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Eduardo Frei Montalva (1911–1982) was a Chilean political figure and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile (1994-2000).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Administration 3 Position on Allende and Pinochet 4 Death 5 Additional information 5.1 See also 5.2 Notes 5.3 Sources

Early life

Eduardo Frei Montalva was born in Santiago on January 16, 1911, the son of Eduardo Frei Schlinz, a Swiss-born ethnic German from Austria, and Victoria Montalva Martínez. He attended high school at the Instituto de Humanidades Luis Campino and went on to study law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, graduating as a lawyer in 1933. He married María Ruiz-Tagle and had 5 children. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000.

He began his political career in the Conservative Party, but was among a group of young men who founded their own party in 1938: the Falange Nacional. In 1957, the Falange became the Christian Democratic Party of Chile, and he became the undisputed leader.

He was minister of Public Works in 1945, and senator in 1949. He ran for president in 1958 before being elected in 1964. That year he was elected with his "Revolución en Libertad" ("Revolution in Liberty") slogan by a large margin (56%), defeating Socialist candidate Salvador Allende who only received 39% of the vote, but who subsequently won the 1970 Chilean presidential election.

Administration

Further information: Presidential Republic

Frei's administration began many reforms in Chilean society. "Promoción Popular" (Social Promotion), "Reforma Agraria" (Agrarian Reform), "Reforma Educacional" (Education Reform), and "Juntas de Vecinos" (Neighborhood Associations) were some of his main projects. He also took measures to rationalise drug supply.

Furthermore, in 1966, the Rapa Nui of Easter Island gained full Chilean citizenship. The Easter Island had been annexed in 1888 by Chile. However, until 1953 the Island had been rented to the Williamson-Balfour Company as a sheep-farm, while the surviving Rapanui were confined to the settlement of Hanga Roa and the rest of the island managed by the Chilean Navy, until its opening to the public in 1966.

Position on Allende and Pinochet

After Allende's 1970 victory, Frei became convinced of what he called a "totalitarian project" to impose a Communist tyranny. His Christian Democratic Party supported the Armed Forces intervention to remove Allende from office in 1973, after the Chamber of Deputies on August 22, 1973, accused Allende of violating the Constitution. In November 1974 Frei wrote a historic letter to Mariano Rumor, President of the International Christian Democrats, endorsing the Armed Forces intervention and denouncing what he alleged was an attempt by Allende to impose in Chile a Communist dictatorship.^[1]

Frei later became part of the opposition against the Augusto Pinochet military government.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Frei died in Santiago, on January 22, 1982, after undergoing surgery for a stomach illness. His death was attributed to an infection, septicaemia, stemming from surgery. He is buried in the Cementerio General de Santiago.

His death is a matter of controversy due to allegations that he may have been was poisoned by the DINA, the intelligence service of the military government, allegedly using a toxin produced by the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios. After Belgian researchers from the University of Ghent reportedly found mustard gas in Frei's body, the former president's family filed a lawsuit, which is still pending as of 2009^[2]. Frei's personal doctor, Patricio Rojas, who was also his Minister of Interior, has denied this accusations. El Mercurio columnist Hermógenes Pérez de Arce dispute even the existence of the Belgian report, citing the denial by the University's chief of communications, Tom de Smedt, that an investigation had been done in that university^[3].

Additional information

See also

Frei family Tacnazo History of Chile

Notes

1. ^ Letter to Mariano Rumor, 8 November, 1973, also at wikisource (Spanish).
2. ^ Ex-Chilean leader 'was murdered', BBC, 23 January 2007
3. ^ Pérez de Arce, Hermógenes, "En el nivel 49", El Mercurio, 31 January 2007, http://diario.elmercurio.cl/detalle/index.asp?id={f968a32e-86ba-47e3-a402-243fdd75ce72}

Sources

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Carta a Mariano Rumor

• Anderson, Steve. "Body of Chile's Former President Frei May Be Exhumed". The Santiago Times. http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=8732&topic_id=1. Retrieved 05 April 2005. 
• "Ex-Chilean leader 'was murdered'". BBC online. 23 January 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6289209.stm. Retrieved 15 January 2009. 
• Kornbluh, Peter (September 2004). "Chile 1964: CIA covert support in FREI election". The National Security Archive. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20040925/index.htm. Retrieved 05 April 2005. 
• Pilleux Cepeda, Mauricio. "Recopilación de Genealogia Chilena" (in Spanish). http://www.genealog.cl/Sur/M/Montalva/. Retrieved 15 January 2009. 
• "Eduardo Frei Montalva" (in Spanish). Biografía de Chile. http://www.biografiadechile.cl/contenido.php?IdCategoria=10&IdArea=323&TituloPagina=Historia%20de%20Chile. Retrieved 16 January 2009. 

Political offices
Preceded by Jorge Alessandri	President of Chile 1964-1970	Succeeded by Salvador Allende
Preceded by Américo Acuña	President of the Senate of Chile 1973	Succeeded by Government Junta

History of Chile v • d • e Presidents of Chile Blanco Encalada • Freire • Pinto Díaz • Prieto • Bulnes • Montt Torres • Pérez • Errázuriz Zañartu • Pinto Garmendia • Santa María • Balmaceda • Montt Álvarez • Errázuriz Echaurren • Riesco • Montt Montt • Barros Luco • Sanfuentes • Alessandri Palma • Figueroa • Ibáñez del Campo • Montero • Aguirre Cerda • Ríos • González Videla • Alessandri Rodríguez • Frei Montalva • Allende • Pinochet • Aylwin • Frei Ruiz-Tagle • Lagos • Bachelet v • d • e Presidents of the Senate of Chile Vivar · Errázuriz · Cienfuegos · Eyzaguirre · Egaña · Vial · Novoa · Cienfuegos · Elizondo · Barros · Tocornal · Yrarrázaval · Benavente · Pinto · Cerda · Larraín · Correa de Saa · Covarrubias · Pérez · Covarrubias · Varas · Santa María · Eastman · Silva · Edwards · Lazcano · Sanfuentes · Balmaceda · Matte · Charme · Tocornal · Claro · Yáñez · Oyarzún · Opazo · Cabero · Urrutia Manzano · Marambio · Urrutia Manzano · Maza · Cruchaga · Durán · Opazo · Urrejola · Alessandri Palma · Alvarez · Alessandri Palma · Alessandri Rodríguez · Pérez de Arce · Videla · Zepeda · Ahumada · Reyes · Maurás · Reyes · Allende · Pablo · Aylwin · Palma · Acuña · Frei Montalva · Government Junta · Valdés · Diez · Zaldívar · Larraín · Romero · Frei Ruiz-Tagle

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