Andrés Zaldivar

José Andrés Rafael Zaldívar Larraín (Santiago, March 18, 1936) is a Chilean lawyer and politician, member of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), which he presided over twice; between 1976-1982 and 1989-1991. From March 2018 to March 2022, he served as president of the Resolution Council for Parliamentary Assignments of the National Congress of Chile.

He was a senator of the Republic in three different periods: between May and September 1973, between 1990 and 2006, and between 2010 and 2018, twice occupying the presidency of the upper house of his country, between 1998 and 2004. and between 2017 and 2018. He also served as Minister of State for Presidents Eduardo Frei Montalva and Michelle Bachelet. He was the senator with the longest tenure in parliament in the exercise of his position (25 years almost uninterrupted), taking the title for a few months in 1973 before the coup d'état, he was elected in 1989 and re-elected in 1997, having a period of absence of 4 years when he was not re-elected in 2005. In March 2006 he was appointed Minister of the Interior to head the first government of Michelle Bachelet, serving in that capacity until July of that year. In the 2009 parliamentary elections, he was elected again as a senator for the legislative period from 2010 to 2018, this being his last period, as he was not re-elected in the 2017 parliamentary elections..

In 1999 he was a pre-candidate of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy for the presidency of the Republic on behalf of his party. He had to withdraw his option after losing an internal confrontation with Ricardo Lagos, standard bearer of the PS-PPD-PRSD bloc, ultimately president for the period 2000-2006.

Biography

Family

He was born in Santiago de Chile on March 18, 1936. He was the fifth child of the couple Alberto Zaldívar Errázuriz, an employee who retired from the Ferrocarriles del Estado company to live off the income at the age of 40. with Josefina Larraín Tejeda, who maintained a close relationship with the Catholic Church. Josefina was the first woman councilor of the Christian Democratic Party. Her brothers are Alberto (former deputy for Santiago), Javier, Felipe, Josefina, Renato, Adolfo (also former president of the Senate) and Rodrigo. He is the uncle of the Minister of Labor and Welfare Social during the second government of Sebastián Piñera; María José Zaldívar.

Studies and working life

He completed his primary and secondary studies at the Alonso de Ercilla Institute of the Marist Brothers, where he stood out from an early age for his good academic performance and strong character, elements that he contrasted with his short height (only 1.59 meters), in addition He had Lucho Gatica among his companions.

He continued his superiors, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile. He graduated in legal and social sciences with the report titled: Less Law: Comments and jurisprudence, prefaced by Fernando Alessandri and which was distinguished by the Legal Editorial and published as a study text. lawyer on March 18, 1959. In this corporation he held leadership positions in the Christian social movement and in the Student Federation. In this career, his participation in the International Student Congress in Chicago as secretary of the Federation stands out. Union of Federations of University Students of Chile, in 1956.

He began his professional life in a property brokerage. Then, between 1959 and 1963, he served as legal secretary of the Municipality of Colina, from where he later went on to work as a local police judge of La Cisterna (1962-1963)., commune of Greater Santiago.

In 1996, he was part of the first board of directors of the New Faces of Hogar de Cristo Foundation, a work founded by his brother, Rodrigo Zaldívar.

During the year 2006 until March 2010, he served as president of the Board of Directors of the University of Santiago de Chile (USACH), president of the Chile-Korea Society and Honorary Consul General of that country.

Personal life

He married María Inés Hurtado Ruiz-Tagle—sister of Carlos Hurtado Ruiz-Tagle, who was Minister of Public Works—in April 1959; The couple has four daughters: Paula, Patricia and Claudia and Francisca, the latter was a councilor for the Municipality of Recoleta (2004-2008).

Political career

In 1952 he had begun what would be a long political career by joining the Christian Social Conservative Party (PCSC) at the initiative of his mother and where he assumed leadership positions. Five years later, on July 28, 1957, participated in the founding of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and became president of the Youth of the Third District of Santiago.

Minister of Frei Montalva

From a very young age he developed a close relationship with Frei Montalva.In 1963, at only 26 years old, he joined the presidential campaign, being assigned responsibility for programmatic legal development, assuming the executive secretary of the Program Commission. Government —to develop the bases of the future government—, which brought together a group of lawyers, including Jorge Ahumada.

Once in the government, he was appointed Undersecretary of the Treasury, serving in the position between 1964 and 1967; Later he was Minister of Economy, Development and Reconstruction and, since March 15, 1968, of Finance, thus becoming the youngest member of the cabinet, at 32 years old. At the head of this last portfolio he had to face the difficult approval of a readjustment law, as well as the military episode known as Tacnazo of 1969, also derived from financial problems.

He was governor of the Inter-American Development Bank (1968-1970); representative before the Inter-American Committee of the Alliance for Progress (1968-1969) in Washington D.C. and before the Economic and Social Committee in Caracas (1970).

He presented himself as a candidate for senator for the 1969 parliamentary elections, representing the 10th Provincial Group of Chiloé, Aysén and Magallanes, but was not elected.

During the years of government of the Popular Unity (UP), led by the socialist Salvador Allende, he assumed various positions within the party: between 1970 and 1973 he participated in the National Council (1970-1973) and a member of the Political Commission (1972).

Opponent to Pinochet

In 1973 he became a member of Congress for the first time when he was elected senator for the 2nd Provincial Group of Atacama and Coquimbo, joining the Economy Commission. He held this position until September 21 of the same year, the date on which that the military dictatorship dissolved the National Congress.

In this context, and after alleged statements to a Mexican newspaper in which he questioned the legitimacy of the 1980 Constitution, on October 16, 1980, while he remained in Jerusalem, Israel, he was prohibited from entering the country, remaining in exile in Madrid, Spain, with his family. From exile, he maintained the leadership of his party. This decree prevented him from participating in the funeral of Frei Montalva, in January 1982, although not from attending the capital, authorized for five days, after the death of his father.

He served as president of his party between 1976 and 1982; The following year, Zaldívar returned to Chile.

In exile he was the first Latin American to hold the position of president of the Christian Democratic International (IDC), between 1981 and 1986, the year in which he took office as an advisory and advisory member. At the same time, in 1981, he participated in the foundation of the "Ibero-American-European Research and Promotion Center" (CIPIE), being its president, as of June 17, 1981.

He returned to Chile in August 1983, after the military regime authorized around sixteen hundred exiles to return to the country, among whom were also: Jaime Castillo; Renán Fuentealba, Claudio Huepe and other prominent left-wing politicians such as Carlos Briones, Luis Maira, Aníbal Palma and José Antonio Viera-Gallo.

In 1988 he joined the No campaign for the October national plebiscite that sought to remove General Augusto Pinochet from power. That same year he again assumed the presidency of his party for two years.

Concertation Governments

In the Senate

In the 1989 parliamentary elections, he won the senatorship for District 7 of Santiago Poniente, for the period 1990-1998. In one of the closest elections in the electoral history of Chile: he obtained the first majority with 408,227 votes, corresponding to 31.27% of the total votes validly cast, while his fellow candidate on the list, the later president Ricardo Lagos, obtained 30.62%. Due to the binomial system and the fact that both could not bend the right-wing Democracy and Progress pact, Zaldívar himself and the UDI, Jaime Guzmán, were elected as senators. The latter had obtained only 17.19% of the votes.

In this period, he was a member of the Public Works Commission and chaired the Finance Commission. Starting in 1996, he was head of the senatorial bench of his PDC party. In January 1997 he was elected as the "Best Senator of the Republic" by his peers. In December of that same year, he was re-elected with 27.77% of the votes. His list partner, Camilo Escalona, obtained 15.98%, mainly due to the migration of votes from the left towards the Communist Party candidate, Gladys Marín, who obtained 15.69% of the preferences. This allowed Zaldívar to be chosen along with UDI Jovino Novoa.

During his second term since the return of democracy, he participated in the Constitution, Legislation, Justice and Regulation commissions and chaired the Internal Regime Commission.

On March 15, 1998, he was elected president of the Senate, a position he held until March 16, 2004. As such, he presided over the session of the Plenary Congress, in March 2000, where he was elected president of the Senate. Republic to the PPD militant, Ricardo Lagos.

In 1999, he was proclaimed a pre-candidate for the presidency of the Republic by the Christian Democratic Party for the presidential election of the same year. Meanwhile, the PS-PPD-PRSD pact chose Ricardo Lagos as its candidate. Both faced each other in an open primary election held in May, in which Lagos won with 71.3% of the votes, compared to 28.7% for Zaldívar, thus becoming the official candidate of the Concertación..

Bachelet's Minister

In 2005 he ran for the third consecutive time for the senatorship of Santiago Poniente for the parliamentary elections of December 11, facing the deputy Guido Girardi (PPD) (his list partner), the senator Jovino Novoa (UDI) and to businessman Roberto Fantuzzi (independent), the only ones with real possibilities of obtaining a seat in Parliament. Zaldívar did not manage to obtain a place in the Upper House - despite obtaining the second majority with 286,917 votes, equivalent to 23.02% of the valid votes -, because despite surpassing the unionist candidate in votes, the votes of his list They did not double those of the opposition, and her pact partner and the UDI parliamentarian were elected.

A few days later, she joined Michelle Bachelet's campaign - assuming the leadership of the strategic Political Committee - ahead of the second round to be held in January 2006, which would ultimately be won by the official candidate.

After the presidential victory, on March 11, 2006, he was appointed Minister of the Interior, but after four months in office, and due to the impossibility of controlling the student protests, among other events, the president asked him his resignation, appointing Belisario Velasco, also a Christian Democrat, to replace him.

Back to the Upper House

In the parliamentary elections of December 2009, he successfully competed to fill a seat in the Senate representing the El Maule Norte Constituency, returning to Congress after beating the socialist Jaime Gazmuri, his fellow candidate on the list, by a wide margin. He was elected with 86,936 votes, corresponding to 31.37% of the votes, for the period 2010-2018.

He took office on March 11, 2010 and became a member of the permanent Economics commissions; Special Mixed Budgets; and Government, Decentralization and Regionalization. In 2014 he joined the permanent commissions of Government, Decentralization and Regionalization; of Treasury; and Special Mixed Budgets, which he also chaired. Likewise, in 2015 she maintained her participation in the permanent commissions of Government, Decentralization and Regionalization; of Ethics and Transparency in the Senate and in the Treasury, being its president as of March 17, 2015. In addition, he was a member of the Special Commission destined to address the catastrophe caused by the fire in Valparaíso.

He became president of the Senate again on March 21, 2017. When his term ended in March 2018, he spent almost seven years leading the Upper House, which he headed from 1998 to 2002, and then from 2002 to 2004., which made him the politician who has been in charge of it the longest, surpassing his coreligionist Gabriel Valdés, who headed it for six years.

In the 2017 parliamentary elections he competed for re-election in the new Constituency 9, in the Democratic Convergence pact, for the period 2018-2026. He obtained 29,598 votes, equivalent to 8.01% of the total votes, without be re-elected.

Subsequent activities

At the beginning of 2018, after an internal vote, the Senate approved by 26 votes in favor his appointment as president of the Parliamentary Appointments Council of the National Congress, for a period of four years, until March 2022.

Recognitions

On November 19, 2003, within the framework of its 161st anniversary, the University of Chile granted it its institutional recognition, in the Politics and Government mention. In addition, he received the "King Olaf" decoration. from Sweden.

Controversies

Corruption cases

Fishing Law and links with the Angelini

During 2002, when the Fisheries Law was updated, Senator Zaldívar was the subject of criticism, because he and his brother Adolfo had owned shares in the fishing company Eperva, the largest and most important of the Corpesca group, since 1993. belonging to the Angelini Group. The demand was made by the then leader of the Terram Foundation, Marcel Claude. Both had 1.1% of the company and, in addition, it was discovered that other relatives were in negotiations with the aforementioned fishing company and that his other brother, Felipe, was the president of Eperva. Despite this, Andrés Zaldívar presented a motion in 2001 that established maximum capture limits per shipowner in region I and II, but it was harshly criticized by the National Economic Prosecutor because its approval "would give a dominant position, of a monopolistic nature, to the Angelini Group. After the scandal, Claude turned to former senator Nelson Ávila and current senator Alejandro Navarro to disqualify Zaldívar and his brother Adolfo (who at that time was also a senator). Faced with these pressures, Zaldívar sold his shares and unsuccessfully sued Marcel Claude for insults, after he called him and his family corrupt in the defunct Chilevisión program El Termométro .

His controversy with the fishing company reappeared in 2012, in which while the Fisheries Law or Longueira Law was being processed, when it was learned that his brother Manuel and his nephew Felipe worked for Corpesca, which generated indignation among artisanal fishermen and parliamentarians. The situation worsened when it was revealed that Zaldívar belonged to an ethics committee to evaluate the Orpis Case, along with other parliamentarians accused of being linked to fishing companies, such as Hernán Larraín (UDI) and José García Ruminot (RN).

Andean Waters

While the Investigative Police (PDI) was investigating the company Aguas Andinas, for alleged irregular financing of political campaigns, it was discovered that Zaldívar issued ballots in 2006, just a few days after leaving the position of Minister of the Interior during the first presidency of Michelle Bachelet, until 2009, five days before he took office as senator for the Maule region, receiving a total of $150 million pesos. He affirmed that those ballots were justified by "legal advice" and that he had them backed up on paper and on floppy disks. He also maintained that the proceeds from these ballots went to his estate, and that they were not used to finance his senatorial bid in 2009. Despite these explanations, he still remains in doubt as to the fate of those proceeds.

Spiniak case

In 2004 he was named by deputy Pía Guzmán as one of those involved in the "Spiniak Case", along with politicians Jovino Novoa (UDI), Nelson Ávila (PR), Carlos Cantero (RN) and Carlos Bombal (UDI).

Written work

He is the author of the following books and articles:

• Zaldívar Larraín, Andrés. (2022). The Chile I've lived. Editorial Catalonia. Santiago, Chile.
• ____.- (2003). A driving State for development. State, government, public management. Universidad de Chile, Instituto de Asuntos Públicos, Departamento de Gobierno y Gestión Pública. Santiago, Chile: Vol.1, No. 3, p.3-6.
• ____.- (May 1999). Decentralization, regional development and democracy. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: Year LIII, No. 424, p.28-34.
• ____.- (1999). Human development as a country strategy. The country we want: public policies for human development. Candidatura Presidencial de Andrés Zaldívar L. Santiago, Chile: Red de Nuevas Ideas.
• ____.- (May 1999). Proposals for the candidacy of Andrés Zaldivar. L. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: Year 53, No. 424, p. 35-55.
• ____.- (1997). Modernity and post-modernity: public and private in politics(May/June 1995) Subordinated or insubordinated debt. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: XLIX Year, N.o 404, p.45-47.
• ____.- (May 1994). New political times: consensus or confrontation. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: Year XLVIII, No. 339, p.15-17.
• ____.- (1995). The unfinished transition. Santiago, Chile: Los Andes (Ago./Sept.1993). The first four years of Chilean democracy. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: Year XLVIII, No. 395, p.9-11.
• ____.- (May/June 1993). Tax reform: increase in social spending. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: Year XLVIII, No. 394, p.44-45.
• ____.- (Dec./feb.1992/1993). Economic development and quality of life in Chile of the 90s. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: XLVII Year, No. 393, p.12-14.Seminar "Santiago a city to live".
• ___ and Piñera, Sebastian (1993). 'The fundamental problems of the city of Santiago: regulatory plane. Seminar "Santiago a city to live". Santiago de Chile: Instituto Chileno de Estudios Humanísticas.
• ___.- (August 1992). The PDC and the consolidation of democracy: Democratic-Christian identity and project in the consolidation of democracy and comprehensive development in the country. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: XLVI Year, No. 391, p.7-10.
• ____.- (1991). Our identity is our project. (19 January 1990). Christian Democracy: a future project. Speech delivered by Andrés Zaldívar L., national president of the Christian Democratic Party in session of the Expanded National Council. Chile: Aconcagua.
• ____.- and Frei Montalva, Eduardo (1990). Thoughts. Madrid, Spain: Fundación CIPIE.
• ____.- (1988). A pilgrim presidency. Santiago, Chile: IDC.
• ____.- (nov. 1988). Proposal for a possible future. Politics and Spirit. Santiago, Chile: Year XLIII, N.o 380, p.34-37.
• ____.- (1984). For democracy, now and forever. Santiago, Chile: Aconcagua.
• ____.- and Varas, Florence (1983) Exile in Madrid. Madrid, Spain: Fundación CIPIE.
• ____.- (1968). Exhibition on the state of the public hacienda: presented by the Minister of Finance Don Andrés Zaldívar Larraín, to the Joint Budget Commission on 29 October 1968. Santiago, Chile: Ministry of Finance, Directorate of Budgets.
• ____.- (1958). Leasing law: comments and case law. Santiago, Chile: Law of Chile.

Electoral history

Supplementary election of 1971

• Supplementary parliamentary election of 1971, candidate for senator for the 10th Provincial Group, Chiloé, Aysén and Magellan

Parliamentary elections of 1973

• Parliamentary elections of 1973, candidate for senator for the 2nd Provincial, Atacama and Coquimbo

1989 parliamentary elections

• 1989 parliamentary elections, candidate for senator for the Circumscription 7, Santiago Poniente (Alhué, Buin, Calera de Tango, Cerrillos, Cerro Navia, Colina, Conchalí, Curacaví, El Monte, Estación Central, Huechuraba, Independencia, Isla de Maipo, Lampa, Lo Prado, María Pinto, Melipilla, Paine, Normal Peña Relicura, Quidahuel,

1997 parliamentary elections

• Parliamentary elections of 1997, candidate for senator for the Circumscription 7, Santiago Poniente (Alhué, Buin, Calera de Tango, Cerrillos, Cerro Navia, Colina, Conchalí, Curacaví, El Monte, Estación Central, Huechuraba, Independencia, Isla de Maipo, Lampa, Pedro Prado, Maipúleta, María Pinto, Melipilla, Padre Hurtado, Paine Peñael, Pudahu

2005 parliamentary elections

• Parliamentary elections of 2005, candidate for senator for the Circumscription 7, Santiago Poniente (Alhué, Buin, Calera de Tango, Cerrillos, Cerro Navia, Colina, Conchalí, Curacaví, El Monte, Estación Central, Huechuraba, Independencia, Isla de Maipo, Lampa, Pedro Prado, Maipúleta, María Pinto, Melipilla, Padre Hurtado, Paine, Peñael, Quinta, Pudahu

2009 parliamentary elections

• 2009 parliamentary elections, candidate for senator for Circumscription 10, El Maule Norte (Constitución, Curepto, Curicó, Empedrado, Hualañé, Licantén, Maule, Molina, Pelarco, Pencahue, Rauco, Río Claro, Romeral, Sagrada Familia, San Clemente, San Rafael, Talca, Teno and Vichuquén)

2017 parliamentary elections

• 2017 parliamentary elections, to senator for the 9th Circumscription, Region of Maule (Cauquenes, Chanco, Colbún, Constitution, Curepto, Curicó, Empedrado, Hualañé, Licantén, Linares, Longaví, Maule, Molina, Parral, Pelarco, Pelluhue, Pencahue, Rauco, Retiro, Río Claro, Romeral, Sagrada Familia, Sanchun

Elections of constitutional councilors of 2023

• Elections of constitutional advisers of 2023, by the Aysén Region