Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle

Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (; born 24 June 1942) is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senator, fulfilling the role of President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He attempted a comeback as the candidate of the ruling Concertación coalition for the 2009 presidential election, but was narrowly defeated. His father was Eduardo Frei Montalva, president of Chile from 1964 to 1970.

His presidency was marked by a consolidation of Chile's transition to democracy albeit the indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet in his last year of government heated up national politics. Economically, he oversaw a period of rapid economic growth that was only temporarily stunted by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

In the 2020s he has taken political positions different from those of the Christian Democratic Party aligning more with the views of centrist and right-wing parties in the constitutional referendums of 2022 and 2023.

Early life

Frei was born in Santiago to Eduardo Frei Montalva and María Ruiz-Tagle Jiménez. He received all his schooling at the Luis Campino Institute. He then attended the University of Chile, where he graduated as a civil engineer, specializing in hydraulics. After graduation, he followed advanced courses in management in Italy.

Political career

Frei took his first steps in politics while at the university, where he was a student leader. In 1958, he joined the Christian Democrat party, and in 1964 participated actively in his father's successful presidential campaign. Between 1969 and 1988 he concentrated on his profession, as one of the partners of Sigdo Koppers S.A., the largest engineering company in Chile.

In 1988 Frei founded and promoted the Comité Pro Elecciones Libres ("Committee for the promotion of free elections"). In 1989, he was elected Senator for Santiago, obtaining the highest number of votes in the whole country. In the Senate, he presided over the Treasury and Budget Commission and was a member of the Housing Commission.

Presidency

thumb|Frei Ruiz-Tagle (center) together with members of his 1993 presidential campaign team.

thumb|left|200px|President Frei in 1998

Elections

Frei participated as a pre-candidate in the primary elections held on 23 May 1993 among supporters and members of the parties that made up the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, prevailing with 60.7% of the votes and defeating socialist Ricardo Lagos, former minister of education and a staunch opponent of the military dictatorship, who obtained 39.2%. Frei was chosen as candidate for the presidency of the Republic.

In the presidential election of December 1993 six candidates ran, and Frei was elected with 57.98% of the votes (4,040,497, becoming the first to surpass the four million mark). The second-highest vote total was obtained by the centre-right Arturo Alessandri Besa – grandson of the two-time president Arturo Alessandri – (with 24.41% of the vote), and succeeding his party colleague Patricio Aylwin.

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle had particularly good relations with his Argentine counterpart Carlos Menem. During Frei's tenure the Laguna del Desierto territorial dispute with Argentina was solved, albeit the arbitrage favoured the Argentine position. Broadly speaking these were: to consolidate economic development, continuing the path followed to achieve "development with equity"; to "overcome extreme forms of poverty"; to modernize labour relations; to build a modern educational system; to create an efficient and equitable health system; and to deepen Chile's "international integration". In 1998, that situation changed abruptly, because GDP grew only 3.23% in 1996 pesos according to the so-called original series published by the Central Bank.

This recession had as its backdrop a severe energy crisis, derived from the drought that struck the Andean country, which depended on water-based generation. This led to progress in interconnection with Argentina for the transport of natural gas, a development that would sharply lower costs.

In the matter of fighting poverty, economic growth made it possible for the bottom 20% of the population to increase its consumption capacity by 10%. All in all, the greatest work of the period and of the entire decade was Line 5 of the Santiago Metro, which made it possible to link the city centre with the populous commune of La Florida.

In the matter of privatizations, the Chilean state raised about US$1800 million during the period from the sale of strategic stakes in the water companies Essel, Essal, Emos and Esval, which were handed over to operators with vast experience, such as the Agbar Group or Iberdrola, with the commitment to improve their management and invest resources in networks and systems.

The country's main ports also passed into private hands during the period, on the basis of a modernization policy defined in 1995 and ratified by the Parliament. Thus, in 1999 the handover of berths in Valparaiso, San Antonio and San Vicente was completed in exchange for US$294 million.

At this point it is worth noting, lastly, the incorporation of private capital into Empresa Electrica Colbun Machicura, one of the largest in the country, in 1997.

thumb|Frei Ruiz-Tagle as president of the Republic together with his fellow party member [[Andrés Zaldívar – who had been a minister of state during the government of Frei Montalva – as president of the Senate.]]

From the educational point of view, his administration, as a result of greater economic growth, contributed more resources to the system, a fact that allowed concrete advances such as curricular reform, the extension of the school day, the increase of infrastructure, and the Enlaces Network.

Environmental policies

Highly questioned were the decisions he made in environmental matters. A first case considered emblematic was the final approval of the construction of Arauco's Valdivia plant in San Jose de la Mariquina, which had been approved with conditions in 1996 by the same local authorities gathered in the Corema.

Also generating controversy was the construction of the Ralco hydroelectric plant of the National Electricity Company (Endesa) in the Biobio Region, on lands belonging to the Pehuenche people since ancestral times and the signing of the mining treaty with Argentina, which made possible the installation of Pascua Lama, as well as the study of mining projects such as Vicuna, Amos-Andres, Las Flechas and El Pachon. The pact with the United States remained pending, and would be signed in the following administration. He also achieved Chile's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Another notable event was the holding, in 1996, of the 6th Ibero-American Summit of heads of state and government, on which occasion the country hosted in Santiago and Vina del Mar numerous heads of government, in addition to the king of Spain, Juan Carlos I.

Likewise, during his term there took place the visit of the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, in 1998, who travelled to attend the 2nd Summit of the Americas, openly praised Chile on the occasion by stating that it was a hemispheric leader and an example for the whole region because of the strengthening of its democracy, the openness of its economy, and the way the government had tackled the fight against poverty.

Lastly, in the sphere of relations with neighbouring countries, in October 1994, the ruling of an international tribunal in Rio de Janeiro, composed of five members, was accepted; it awarded Argentine sovereignty over Laguna del Desierto. In addition to this, his government obtained approval of the treaty on the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, with which it put an end to the last pending border dispute with Argentina, and achieved the signing of the Act of Execution of the Treaty of Lima of 1929 with Peru, on 13 November 1999, thereby settling the pending aspects of Article 5 of that treaty and Article 2 of its Supplementary Protocol.

Health policies

In the area of health, despite spending nearly doubling during his six years, management did not improve significantly. Likewise, problems with the trade groups were permanent, particularly during the brief period of the minister of the health portfolio, Carlos Massad, who, because he was an economist and not a physician, was rejected from the outset by the leaders of the sector. During the period the municipalized care allocation system was reformed, the National Health Fund (Fonasa) was rationalized, and modern hospitals were inaugurated. It should also be noted that during his mandate controversial pardons were granted, such as for example to a drug trafficker, and to Cupertino Andaur on 29 August 1996, who had been sentenced to death ten days earlier after being found guilty of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old child.

He also promulgated a series of laws that sought to strengthen the family as the fundamental nucleus of society. Among these stood out the laws on domestic violence, filiation, family protection, and adoptions, and he left in progress the legislative processing of the bill that created the Family courts, which materialized in 2005.

The decree was also signed by the minister of justice, Soledad Alvear; however, that corresponded to the minister of public works, Ricardo Lagos, who opposed the project and presented his resignation to the president, which ultimately was not accepted.

The former dictator, who had arrived in England for the purpose of undergoing surgery for a hernia, remained detained for 17 months, returning to the country only days before the end of the government, which had promised to bring him back arguing a violation of the country's sovereignty.

The situation was resolved after Pinochet's lawyers argued that if the United Kingdom detained him at the request of the Spanish government, Chile could also detain Margaret Thatcher if she were requested by the governments of Argentina or Ireland. The British home secretary, the Labour Jack Straw, was compelled to order neurological and geriatric examinations of the then 84-year-old military officer; in December 1999.

Considering the report and his age, Straw decided to release Pinochet on humanitarian grounds on 2 March 2000. On 3 March he landed at Pudahuel, where he was received by the then commander-in-chief, appointed by the government itself, Ricardo Izurieta.

Return to the Congress

Since constitutional reforms in 2005 abolished life senators from 2006, Frei ran for and won an elected Senate seat in the December 2005 parliamentary elections in the electoral district of Valdivia Province and Osorno Province, together with Andrés Allamand. On 11 March 2006, Frei became President of the Senate, like his father, who was also President of the Senate after being President of the Republic.

Frei, whose grandfather Eduardo Frei Schlinz had emigrated to Chile from Switzerland, obtained Swiss citizenship in February 2009.

In 2009–2010 elections, Frei ran for the presidency of Chile for a second time, again as the candidate of the centre-left Concertación center-coalition, promising continuity of the popular outgoing President Michelle Bachelet's path. Some of his presidential campaign banners and billboards pictured him, accompanied by Bachelet over his left shoulder. In the first round of the elections, held on 13 December 2009, Frei held 29.60% of the official vote, second to his opponent Sebastián Piñera, who led with 44.05%. Since neither candidate received more than half of the total votes, a runoff election was held on Sunday, 17 January 2010. The first preliminary results announced by the Deputy Interior Ministry at 21:00 GMT on election day gave Piñera 51.87% and Frei holding 48.12%. Frei conceded to Piñera at 21:44 GMT.

In a graceful exit from the campaign, Frei stated,

"The election is over and Chileans have shown civic maturity.... The results clearly show the solidity of our democracy. It has been clean and transparent in line with our tradition. I want to congratulate Pinera, to whom most Chileans have given their trust for the next four years."

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Styles, honours and arms

National honours

alt=|80x80px Grand Master (1994–2000) and Collar of the Order of Merit
alt=|80x80px Grand Master (1994–2000) and Collar of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins

Foreign honours

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70px Commander of the Order of the Sun (Peru)
:
70px Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (19 July 1995)
:
70px Grand Cross of the Grand Order of King Tomislav ("For outstanding achievements in promoting the development of friendship and fruitful cooperation in political, cultural and economic development between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Chile, and in promoting peace, democracy, stability and international cooperation in the world on the basis of the principles of the UN Charter and the provisions of international law." – 8 November 1994)
:
70px Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm (1995)
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70px Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
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70px Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, 3 March 1995
Member of the Club de Madrid, an independent non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community, composed by more than 100 members: former democratic Heads of State and Government from around the world.
70x70px Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (1996)

Arms

Coat of Arms of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (Order of the Seraphim).svg|As Knight of the Collar of the Order of the Seraphim

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References

External links

Senado's Personal profile
Biography by CIDOB Foundation (in Spanish)
Genealogical chart of Frei-Montalva Family