Carlos Ibanez del Campo

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (Linares, November 3, 1877-Santiago, April 28, 1960) was a Chilean military and politician, who served as President of the Republic on two different occasions: in his dictatorial period of 1927-1931 and in his legitimate and democratic period of 1952-1958. He was also Minister of State during the governments of Presidents Emiliano Figueroa and Arturo Alessandri, in the portfolios of War and the Ministry of the Interior of Chile, respectively. Prior to his second administration, he served as a senator representing the 4th Provincial Association of Santiago from 1949 to 1952.

His main contribution to Chilean political history was to have founded a series of institutions that partially modernized the State of Chile; within these can be counted Carabineros de Chile (1927), or the Comptroller General of the Republic. In the same way, he founded public companies such as LAN Chile (1929) or IANSA (1953) later privatized during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Likewise, its Labor Code (1931) was replaced by the 1987 Labor Code inspired by the ideas of economist José Piñera Echenique, who served as Pinochet's minister in that area (1978-1980).

Ibáñez made his first appearance in politics through the 1924 coup, which sought to overthrow the pseudo-parliamentary system and restore the presidentialism defeated in the 1891 Revolution. By default, who was affected by the 1924 movement It was President Alessandri (1920-1924), who failed to make distributive reforms and neutralize the action of the military, also affected by their low salaries. As a result of the coup, Alessandri resigned and went into exile, but Ibáñez and other soldiers orchestrated his return so that, ultimately, he would organize the 1925 Constitution.

Both Alessandri and Ibáñez strategically allied themselves around the same objective: to end the Constitution of 1833 to implement a new beneficent order. Although the new text was promulgated in irregular conditions, it had the general support of the parties and allowed the return of Alessandri to the presidency. However, his multiple quarrels with Alessandri would lead Ibáñez to use his influence to get rid of him and his opponents, which ended in his definitive seizure of power in 1927.

His first period was a de facto dictatorship and was characterized by emphasizing the social and developmental foundations of the 1925 Constitution. In his second government he wanted to consecrate the economic measures of the first, so in addition to IANSA, he created entities such as the Banco del Estado de Chile. However, Ibáñez failed in his objective of consecrating the policies of his first term due to the triggering of inflation produced by high public spending, the hyperdependence of copper and the Korean War (1950-1953). For this reason, his Management in the 1950s was divided into a populist phase (1952-1955) and a partially liberal one marked by economic needs and the loss of popular support (1956-1958).

His second term did not leave any doctrinal legacy and ended up being a period of transition between the radical governments (1938–1952) and the era of the three thirds (1958-1973), a period in which he had there was a mutual exclusion between the left, the Christian Democrats (DC) and the right until the military coup of 1973. Despite the non-legacy of Ibáñez, the positive criticism that this leader left in politicians such as the socialist Carlos Altamirano Orrego.

Background

Genealogy

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo was the son of Francisco Ibáñez and María Nieves del Campo. On his father's side, his family descended from Galway native Irish captain John Augustine Evans, who arrived in Chile in 1730 after the shipwreck of the HMS Wager on the island of the same name, and who Spanishized his last name. Captain Evans contacted Ambrosio O'Higgins, Governor of Linares, who gave him the administration of the Royal Treasury of Perquilauquén. Among Ibáñez's ancestors are members of the Alvarado family of Spanish conquistadors. He was a direct descendant of García de Alvarado.

Early Life

He lived during his childhood on the San Francisco farm, owned by his father (in Vega de Ancoa) and organized the first peasant center in that city. His younger brother, Javier, was also a soldier and politician, being a member of the Democratic Party.

In 1889, he entered the Linares Public School and later went on to the Linares Men's High School, where he met Rogelio Cuéllar, who directed the men's school and was a mathematics teacher. Cuéllar was the one who recommended him to enter the Military School. On March 12, 1896, he entered the second year of the Military School.

Military career

He began his military career upon entering the Military School on March 12, 1896. He graduated from the Military School on March 3, 1898 with the rank of Ensign of the Army. His first military assignment was the Cavalry Regiment Cazadores del General Baquedano, No. 2, garrisoned in Santiago, where he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Cavalry Weapon on April 3, 1900., providing that he continue to provide his services in the aforementioned Regiment until 1903, when he entered the War Academy. During this period, he realized the quality of the popular sectors, he did not understand the indifference of the owners of farms for their tenants, these being also Chileans they were kept on the margin of progress and oblivious to all well-being, he later told his Economy Minister, Luis Correa Prieto.

In 1903 he participated in a military mission in El Salvador, where due to his military actions he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Salvadoran Army, instead having only the position of captain in the Chilean Army since April 1908. He returned to Chile in 1909.

He served in different positions in the cavalry regiments and as an instructor at the Military School between 1909 and 1911. At the same time, he resumed his studies at the Army War Academy, from which he graduated on February 12, 1925, joining the General Staff of the Army as part of the trial process to obtain the appointment of Staff Officer, which he obtained on February 24, 1917.

In April 1917, he was assigned as a staff officer in the Command of the First Army Division in Tacna. On May 16, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of Major. He is assigned to the Cavalry Regiment in Santiago and just one month later, in July 1918, he is appointed Commander of the Army Carabineros Regiment School.

In 1919 he was appointed prefect of the Iquique police. Then, Arturo Alessandri was recently elected president, he was appointed Director of the Cavalry School on January 21, 1921, one of the most prestigious positions within the Chilean military hierarchy. His last military headquarters will be the General Command of the Army Carabineros Corps, appointed by the Military Junta in 1925, a position he held between February 27, 1924 and April 21, 1927.

Personal Life

Married couples and children

He married the Salvadoran Rosa Quirós y Ávila in April 1907, a member of the high society of his country, with whom he had two children, Rosa and Carlos, and who would die on October 12, 1918, at only 29 years old. After remaining a widower for a few years, he married Graciela Letelier Velasco on December 3, 1927. Four children were born to this union: Ricardo, Nieves, Gloria and Margarita Ibáñez Letelier.

Membership

Ibáñez entered Freemasonry on October 30, 1912 at Verdad Lodge No. 10 in Santiago, a workshop in which he reached the rank of Master on November 10, 1913. In 1927 he became an honorary member of the lodge, and in 1932 he was expelled after having resigned from the presidency of the Republic and having gone into exile in the midst of a conflictive environment. In 1936 he returned to the order, in 1940 he became a member of the Grand Lodge and, finally, in 1957 his membership in the Masonic Order was cancelled.

As a farmer, he exploited the Santa Estela de Linares farm, which he owned. Also, he was the owner of a farm in Pitrufquén. He was an honorary member of the Rotary Club.

Political career

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo participated in the military movements of 1924 and 1925, which meant the end of the pseudo-parliamentary regime in Chile. In the coup d'état of January 23, 1925, he overthrew the military junta that had removed Alessandri from the government. This allowed the return of Arturo Alessandri Palma from his exile.

Alessandri appoints him Minister of War to have his support in his government. In 1925 the name of Ibáñez began to gain strength as a possible presidential candidate, so Alessandri decided to make a change of ministers that would allow him to dismiss Ibáñez; however, he decides not to resign, arguing that as leader of the revolution he has an ethical commitment to it and cannot resign; At the same time, seeing Alessandri's intentions towards him, he ends up indicating that according to the 1833 constitution, as well as that of 1925, the president of the republic could not communicate with anyone without having the signature and approval of the minister of the branch in which the issue was mentioned, and since he was the only minister in office, he told Alessandri that he had to pass all the communications from the presidency first through him, otherwise, any communication without his signature would be invalid. Due to this, Arturo Alessandri Palma resigns from his government, despite which he does not depose his presidential candidacy; rather, he conditions it to the difficult task, on the part of the political parties, of positioning a single consensus candidate. This is how the candidacy of Emiliano Figueroa Larraín arose, before which Ibáñez raised the candidacy of José Santos Salas, then Minister of Hygiene, Assistance and Social Welfare, in order to submit the political parties (represented in his candidate) to popular scrutiny.

When Figueroa won the elections, he continued simultaneously holding the positions of Minister of the Interior and Commander-in-Chief of the Carabineros Corps, thus maintaining his character as a strong man within the State, and for the same reason, remaining in the exercise of the can. During this period, he ordered a bloody persecution of his opponents, including the former president of the republic, Arturo Alessandri Palma, who had to go into exile. President Emiliano Figueroa, lacking the character to oppose Ibáñez, resigns after an episode in which the latter demanded his resignation by accusing him of intervening in the judiciary for the appointment of his brother in the Supreme Court of Justice.

First government (1927-1931)

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo during his first government.

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo together with his Ministers of State in 1927.

Time projection of your measurements

The social and economic policies of his first term served as the basis for later measures during the second government of Alessandri (1932-1938) and, especially, those of his successor, Pedro Aguirre Cerda (1938-1941). Despite the fact that both were opponents of Ibáñez, the management of the radical president transformed the intervening role and industrialism outlined by the Chilean General into State policies, which were now channeled into the Production Development Corporation (Corfo). In Chile, that development model was hegemonic between 1939 and 1975. During the last mentioned year, the Pinochet dictatorship began a privatization process that sought to overcome the original restitution of requisitioned properties -through CORFO- by the socialist government of Salvador Allende. This meant that the political and economic ideals that Ibáñez had imprinted on the Armed Forces since the 1920s succumbed to the union project of Jaime Guzmán.

Execution of his mandate

Thus, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo triumphed in an election in which he participated as the only candidate, obtaining 98% of the votes; he ascended to the first magistracy on July 21, 1927. He had no commitments to political parties, being a staunch opponent of them. During his presidency there were eight ministries if he is judged by the changes in the Interior.

He governed for four years, with a social focus and development of the State (considering it a regenerator of the country and its fight against the previously all-powerful oligarchy). The main emphasis of his government was to strengthen the role of the State; He endowed it with a supervisory character of the other powers, strengthened the General Comptroller of the Republic, created the General Treasury, the Superintendency of Insurance and Public Limited Companies, the Superintendency of Saltpeter and Iodine and the National Directorate of Provisioning. In addition, profound ministerial reorganizations were made, creating some and modifying others; Through Decree Law No. 2,484 of April 27, 1927, the fiscal and municipal police forces were merged, as well as the Carabineros Corps -which was a cavalry regiment of the Chilean Army, created in 1908, and which was assigned to the Ministry of interior as in charge of rural and railway security and of which Ibáñez himself served as general commander in 1927-, Investigations Section of the Fiscal Police (origin of the PDI), and other police institutions that depended on the General Directorate of Police, in a single institution, Carabineros de Chile. This new police institution, with a marked military character and strict discipline, would take definitive form through Decree No. 352 of December 23, 1927, organizing itself into the Order (Preventive Work), Security (Investigations) and Cabinet (predecessor) sections. of the Chilean Civil Registry and Identification Service). It equated the salaries of the troops of this new institution to the level of the army, also endowing them with military jurisdiction.

On the other hand, a great boost was given to public works and the Caja de Crédito Minero, the Institute of Industrial Credit, the Chilean Air Force and the Chilean National Air Line were created. He also proposed an educational reform in 1928, and removed the dependence of the existing Chilean educational system on the University of Chile, granting the guardianship of the educational role to the Ministry of Education.

On June 3, 1929, the Treaty of Lima was signed in Lima, which put an end to the dispute over Tacna and Arica, by returning the former to Peru and keeping the latter for Chile. The former president of the republic Emiliano Figueroa Larraín participates in this treaty as ambassador of Chile in Peru. As a result of the signing of this treaty, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930 together with the then Peruvian president Augusto Leguía.

A territorial division of Chile of only sixteen provinces was established, suppressing seven of the existing ones.

The Fall

The Great Depression of 1929 had a powerful impact on the country, unleashing vast social unrest, which resulted in a strong immigration of unemployed workers from the saltpeter north to Santiago, a shortage of basic consumer goods, and strong persecution to the students of the University of Chile, who in August 1930 had refounded the Student Federation. Since Ibáñez did not have political support for the parliamentarians of 1930, he reached an agreement with the political parties to avoid electoral struggle. Thus, it was decided to apply the norm of the Election Law that established that, if the number of candidates did not exceed the number of representatives that had to be elected, there was no need to carry out the election. In this way, the political leaders met in the Chillán Hot Springs and prepared the lists of candidates, so that the election, in practice, became unnecessary, this being the origin of the so-called Thermal Congress. On the economic level, the harmful effects of the Kemmerer mission in Chile by introducing the gold standard to the monetary system, and the contract between the government and the Guggenheim family in the creation of the Chilean Nitrate Company (COSACH), did not more than exacerbating the effects of the world economic crisis in the country.

In July 1931, students from the University of Chile, led by law student and poet Julio Barrenechea, took over the Central House of the University of Chile. Meanwhile, students from the Catholic University, led by Bernardo Leighton and Eduardo Frei Montalva, did the same. The students had strong popular support, and food was sent to them from the aristocratic and exclusive Club de la Unión. The situation became more acute when on July 24, the medical student Jaime Pinto Riesco was killed, which added to the protests the Medical College and the following day, with the death of Professor Alberto Zañartu, the College of Professors and various other guilds. Abandoned by his ministers, who resigned as a result of these acts of violence and to avoid a major confrontation, on July 26 Ibáñez handed over command of the country to the president of the Senate, Pedro Opaso Letelier, along with a request to Congress to leave. from Chile for a year. After delegating command, Ibáñez went into exile in Argentina. The Chamber of Deputies rejected the permit and dismissed Ibáñez on July 27, accusing him of abandoning the national territory without authorization.

Exile and return to politics (1931–1952)

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in his presidential campaign of 1952.

1938 Presidential Election

After returning from exile in 1937, he ran for president the following year, supported by the Alianza Popular Libertadora (APL). This combination was formed, mainly, by the National-Socialist Movement of Chile, the Socialist Union and various other groups of a nationalist nature.

On September 4, 1938, the so-called "Victory March" took place, a massive rally in favor of Ibáñez. The next day, as a result of the anti-democratic practices of the right of the time, such as bribery or group voting typical of the large estates, added to the fragmentation of the opposition into two apparently irreconcilable factions, which practically ensured the rightist victory. In the elections; It happened that a group of young Nazis attempted a coup to bring Ibáñez to power. However, the event ended in a massacre where the coup leaders, once already surrendered and disarmed, were shot on the spot by direct order of President Alessandri. As a consequence, Ibáñez was arrested, since he had provided economic resources and weapons for the coup attempt, for which his candidacy was deposed. Thus, the commotion in public opinion that the massacre caused; added to the deposition of the candidacy of General Ibáñez and to a letter written by Jorge González von Marées, leader of Nazism, who was also arrested for the attempted coup, in which he told his supporters to vote for Pedro Aguirre Cerda, candidate of the Popular Front, caused the latter to establish itself as the winner of the electoral contest, where it won by a scant difference of 4,000 votes, which are attributed to the Nazis.

1942 Presidential Election

In 1942, he was once again a candidate for President, this time supported by the right (Liberal Party and Conservative Party), but this time Arturo Alessandri Palma "removed" his votes of a sector of the Liberal Party, in favor of Juan Antonio Ríos, who finally won.

Senatorship and 1952 elections

In 1949, he was elected senator for Santiago, obtaining the first majority and becoming a possible candidate for the 1952 presidential elections.

Second government (1952-1958)

Ministerial Cabinet

State ministries of the second government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
Ministry	Owner	Period
Ministry of the Interior	Guillermo del Pedregal Herrera Osvaldo Koch Krefft Santiago Wilson Hernández Jorge Araos Salinas Abdón Parra Urzúa Arturo Olavarria Bravo Sergio Recabarren Valenzuela Carlos Montero Schmidt Osvaldo Koch Krefft Benjamin Videla Vergara Jorge Aravena Carrasco Juan Francisco O'Ryan Orrego Horacio Arce Fernández Juan Francisco O'Ryan Orrego Eduardo Úrzua Merino Abel Valdés Acuña
Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Arturo Olavarría Bravo Oscar Fenner Marin Guillermo del Pedregal Herrera Tobias Barros Ortiz Roberto Aldunate León Osvaldo Koch Krefft Kaare Olsen Nielsen José Serrano Palma Enrique Barbosa Baeza Osvaldo Saint Marie Sorucco Horacio Arce Hernández Alberto Sepúlveda Contreras	3 November 1952 - 1 April 1953 1 April - 7 December 1953 7 December 1953 - 15 January 1954 15 January - 5 June 1954 5 June 1954 - 6 January 1955 6 January - 30 May 1955 30 May 1955 - 1 January 1956 2 January - 4 January 1956 4 January - 24 May 1956 24 May 1956 - 11 October 1957 11 October - 28 October 1957 28 October 1957 - 3 November 1958
Ministry of National Defence	Abdón Parra Urzúa Tobias Barros Ortiz Enrique Franco Hidalgo Tobias Barros Ortiz Raúl Araya Stiglich Benjamin Videla Vergara Francisco O'Ryan Orrego Adrian Barrientos Villalobos Luis Vidal Vargas	3 November 1952 - 5 June 1954 5 June 1954 - 19 January 1955 19 February - 25 February 1955 25 February - 13 May 1955 13 May - 23 May 1955 23 May - 30 December 1955 30 December 1955 - 23 April 1957 23 April - 28 October 1957 28 October 1957 - 3 November 1958
Ministry of Finance	Juan Bautista Rossetti Colombino Felipe Herrera Lane Guillermo del Pedregal Herrera Jorge Prat Echaurren Francisco Cuevas Mackenna Sergio Recabarren Valenzuela Abraham Pérez Lizana Oscar Herrera Palacios Eduardo Úrzua Merino	3 November 1952 - 25 June 1953 25 June - 14 October 1953 14 October 1953 - 5 June 1954 5 June 1954 - 6 January 1955 6 January - 21 February 1955 21 February - 30 May 1955 30 May - 4 October 1955 4 October 1955 - 27 August 1956 27 August 1956 - 3 November 1958
General Secretariat of Government
Ministry of Economy	Edecio Torreblanca White Oscar Fenner Marin Santiago Wilson Hernández Rafael Tarud Siwady Guillermo del Pedregal Herrera David Montané Vives Jorge Silva Guerra Rafael Tarud Siwady Arturo Zúñiga Latorre Oscar Herrera Palacios Alejandro Lazo Guevara Roberto Infante Rengifo Horacio Arce Fernández Luis Correa Prieto	1952 - 1953 1953 1953 1953 1953 - 1954 1954 1954 - 1955 1955 1955 1955 - 1956 1956 - 1957 1957 1957 1957 - 1958
Ministry of Public Education of Chile
Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Labour
Ministry of Public Works
Ministry of Public Health and Security
Ministry of Lands and Colonization
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Mining

History

President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, together with his ministers, entered the National Congress in Santiago in 1954.

Ibáñez returned to the presidency in 1952 supported by the Agrarian Labor Party (PAL), the Popular Socialist Party (PSP) and the Chilean Women's Party, led by María de la Cruz, who would give him a large part of the female electorate, who for the first time voted in presidential elections. With the symbol of the broom, which would sweep away the corruption of politicians and parties, and under the slogan of the General of Hope , she achieved 46.8% of the votes.

In March 1953, parliamentary elections were held, increasing the participation of Ibañista groups. Although they were not enough to consolidate the government, this would result in a President-Congress dispute, in addition to a ministerial rotation never seen before.

For this reason, his second government would not have the firmness of the first. He governed unsteadily as he did not have partisan support, except for the Ibañista small groups, who did not have the full confidence of the President.

Economy

In the economic sphere, he continued with the developmentalism of the radicals, promoted the production and infrastructure of the National Petroleum Company (ENAP), the production of the Pacific Steel Company (CAP) and created the National Sugar Industry (IANSA), being one of the last presidents to create companies for CORFO.

In addition, it created the Banco del Estado de Chile, modified the statute of the Central Bank of Chile, created the Ministry of Mines (later called the Ministry of Mining of Chile) and also created the Department of Copper, with the intention of nationalizing it, thereby that did not work out during his government. However, it should be noted that said department was fundamental at the time of nationalization in 1971, since it allowed the coordination and centralization of copper activity.

Ibáñez managed to implement the setting of a peasant minimum wage, replacing a remuneration system in force since the XVII century.

Due to high public spending, inflation worsened in 1955, so he had to call the economic consulting firm Klein-Sacks. The Klein-Sacks measures did not please the population, causing a strike in 1957 that would end with twenty deaths. The measures of the so-called "Klein-Saks Mission" were:

• Reform in foreign trade.
• Supression of subsidies.
• Eliminating automatic readjustment of salaries in the public sector and part of the private sector.
• Modification of the Central Bank Statute.

These measures, which affected wages, implied raising taxes, something unacceptable for a government based on populism, for which reason Ibáñez refused to accept all of them, managing to lower inflation to 17%; however, this was much less than what was stipulated.

Law 11575 of 1954 of the Ministry of Finance was approved, which set VAT at 3%; an initiative proposed by the famous economist Felipe Herrera.^{[citation required]}

Foreign Relations

Abrazo de los presidentes Ibáñez y Perón, el 21 de febrero de 1953.

In this area, Ibáñez was closely linked to the Argentine government of Juan Domingo Perón. In Buenos Aires, on July 8, 1953, both Perón and Ibáñez signed the Argentine-Chilean Economic Union Treaty. Ibáñez participated in the founding of the Villa Eva Perón and both shared the same ideals. As a result of this, the group La Línea Recta arose, a group made up of officers and non-commissioned officers of the Army and the Carabineros whose purpose was to be prepared to take power as soon as President Ibáñez ordered it. ^{[citation required]}

However, after the fall of Perón in 1955, relations with Argentina became very tense, especially with the scandal of the Kelly case, when the Argentine politician Guillermo Kelly, imprisoned in Chile at the request of Argentina, escaped from the Santiago Penitentiary, which led to the constitutional accusation and subsequent dismissal of the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Osvaldo Sainte-Marie Soruco, and the Minister of Justice, Arturo Zúñiga Latorre.

Justice

In this area, during 1957 Ibáñez promoted several reforms regarding Chilean nationality.

During 1958, the last year of his term, and despite the fact that Ibáñez himself applied it several times during his term, he repealed the Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy, often referred to as the Cursed Law, which declared the Chilean Communist Party outlawed and prevented its militants from voting in the elections.

That same year, he reformed the Electoral Law, which created the Single Electoral Certificate, established the compulsory nature of voting and imposed sanctions and other measures to prevent fraudulent practices, especially bribery and the so-called carrying, or paid transportation of voters from one polling place to another. These measures were strongly resisted by the right, since they very significantly reduced the possibilities of exercising clientelism on which many politicians in that sector depended; In practice, the reduction in electoral fraud allowed for a more sincere expression of tendencies that until then had been underrepresented, which favored the left, an ally of Ibáñez.

Also during 1958, the Free Ports Law came into force, which regulated the establishment of free port regimes extendable to warehouses, commerce and other activities in extra-port areas and, if so regulated, in entire provinces. The province of Arica was the first to submit to this system.

Ibáñez del Campo during the inauguration of the first national sugar plant.

Public works

During his government, he promoted the construction of large infrastructure works, contributing to a significant increase in the total public budget.

He inaugurated for his hometown, Linares, the Laguna del Maule Reservoir and the Los Cipreses Reservoir; He promoted improvement plans in Arica and Punta Arenas, promoted a state policy for housing construction and urban development and improvement through CORVI, created during his term. In addition, he promoted the redesign of the Plaza de la Ciudadanía and Paseo Bulnes, following an authoritarian architecture model designed by the Austrian architect Karl Brunner, and ordered the construction of the School Pool, by the Chilean architect of Polish origin Luciano Kulczewski.

In addition, in 1955, with the collaboration of his defense minister Tobías Barros Ortiz, he inaugurated the Presidente Pedro Aguirre Cerda Base, ignoring that they placed his name on it.

Political decline and death (1958-1960)

Tomb of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in the General Cemetery of Santiago.

At the end of his term, political support for the government was at its lowest point. Without a political heir, he made efforts to prevent the triumph of the right-wing candidate Jorge Alessandri, promoting a new electoral law and the repeal of the Law for the Defense of Democracy, thus allowing the communists to return to legal life. All this increased the chances of Salvador Allende's candidacy.

Criticism of Ibáñez was based on the high cost of living in the country, and the police repression during takeovers and strikes. Some elements that produced the strikes were the unions of the Central Única de Trabajadores (CUT), led by Clotario Blest. After leaving office, he withdrew from the media and politics.

During his two terms, he was a promoter of the so-called development model, by which the State maintained an active role in economic activity, taking the initiative in large investment projects and facilitating private activity, especially in the productive area, since he considered that this was the only way to achieve the development of Chile and not the private initiative.

Retired from public life, Ibáñez died of gastric cancer in Santiago on April 28, 1960, at the age of 82. His remains lie in the General Cemetery, along with his two wives.

Distinctions and decorations

Weapons like Grand Master of the Order to the Merit of Chile.

National Awards

• Grand Master of the Order to Merit of Chile (ChileChile, 1929-1931; 1952-1958).
• Declared "illustre citizen" by the Municipality of Arica (1958).
• Declared "hijo ilustre" by the Municipality of Linares (1958).
• Declared “illustre son” and distinguished with the Antofagasta Golden Anchor (1959).

Foreign Awards

• Gran Collar de la Orden de Libertador San Martín (Argentina).
• Gran Collar de la Orden de la Cruz del Sur (BrazilBrazil).
• Order to the Naval Merit (Peru Peru.
• Order of Abdón Calderón (Ecuador).
• Gold Condor of the Army's Andean Specialty (Argentina).

Electoral history

1927 Presidential Election

1938 Presidential Election

1942 Presidential Election

1952 Presidential Election