Carlos Ibáñez Del Campo
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General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (; 3 November 1877 – 28 April 1960) was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as President twice, first between 1927 and 1931, and then from 1952 to 1958, serving for 10 years in office.


The coups of 1924 and 1925

The presidency of Arturo Alessandri saw a rise in popular discontent over an inefficient government. In 1924, the Chilean armed forces, led by General Luis Altamirano, began the ''saber-rattling'' (''ruido de sables''), a protest where soldiers banged their sabers against the floor of the Congress. Amid threats from the armed forces, Alessandri decided he could no longer govern and submitted his resignation. Although this resignation was not approved by Congress, Alessandri left the country and Altamirano established a military junta. However, another faction of the armed forces, led by Colonel Marmaduke Grove and Lieutenant Colonel Ibáñez, decided the junta's reforms did not go far enough in ending the government's inefficiency. They led another coup, deposed Altamirano, and established a new
junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...
with
Emilio Bello Codesido Emilio Bello Codesido (13 July 1868 – 3 March 1963) was a Chilean lawyer, diplomat, deputy and President of the Government Junta that ruled Chile in 1925. He was the son of Andrés Ricardo Bello, and grandson of Andres Bello, who authored th ...
as head. Ibáñez and Grove, the powers behind the scene, agreed to ask Alessandri to return and complete his term.


Minister of War and Home Affairs

Alessandri returned in 1925 and drafted a new constitution which was designed to decrease the powers of the legislature, thereby making government more effective. Ibáñez was named Minister of War and later Home Affairs Minister. However, Alessandri decided Ibáñez was becoming too ambitious, and many ridiculed Alessandri as a pawn of Ibáñez. In response, Alessandri resigned once more and went into exile. Ibáñez announced his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections, but the three main Chilean political parties ( Conservative, Liberal,
Radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
) pressured him to desist. The three parties then presented a consensus choice, Emiliano Figueroa Larraín, to be the sole presidential candidate, in order to avoid political campaigning in the volatile political atmosphere. Nevertheless, Ibáñez's closest adviser, leftist José Santos Salas, later declared his presidential candidacy, and many suspected it was with Ibáñez's backing. Figueroa triumphed with 71% of the vote, but kept Ibáñez as Home Affairs Minister. Ibáñez was able to control the weak Figueroa who decided to resign in 1927 rather than be Ibáñez's puppet. Because he was Home Affairs Minister, under the Chilean constitution, Ibáñez became Vice President and announced elections for 22 May that year. In the presidential elections, the traditional political parties decided not to participate. Ibáñez's only opponent was the communist
Elías Lafertte Elías Lafertte Gaviño (December 19, 1886 – Santiago, February 17 , 1961) was a Chilean worker in saltpeter mining and a communist politician. Lafertte ran in the 1931 and 1932 presidential elections ending in third and fifth place. He was sena ...
, who was exiled in the Juan Fernández Archipelago throughout the electoral campaign. Ibáñez won the election with 98% of the vote.


First presidency

Ibáñez began to exercise dictatorial powers, using
rule by decree Rule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged promulgation of law by a single person or group. It allows the ruler to make or change laws without legislative approval. While intended to allow rapid responses to a crisis, rule ...
(''decretos con fuerza de ley''), suspending parliamentary elections, instead naming politicians to the Senate and Chamber of Deputies himself, etc. Political opponents were arrested and exiled, including his former ally Marmaduke Grove. His popularity, however, was helped by massive loans by American banks, which helped to promote a high rate of growth in the country. He constructed massive public works, and increased public spending. He also created the Carabineros de Chile (police force) by unifying the previously disorganized police forces. Another significant achievement of Ibáñez's first administration was the signing of the 1929
Treaty of Lima Treaty of Lima refers to a number of treaties. * Treaty of Lima (1848), more formally known as the Treaty of Confederation between the Republics of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and New Granada, was signed on February 8, 1848. * Treaty of Lima (18 ...
, in which Chile agreed to return the Tacna Province to Peru, which had been seized during the War of the Pacific. His popularity lasted until after the 1929 collapse of
Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
. At that point all loans were halted and called. Without the influx of foreign currency, Chile was heavily affected by the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Ibáñez's large public spending did nothing to alleviate the situation, and his opponents, primarily the exiled Grove and Alessandri, began to plan a comeback. After a great wave of public unrest, Ibáñez left the country for exile, on 26 July 1931, after delegating his office to the president of the senate,
Pedro Opazo Pedro Opaso Letelier (July 20, 1876 – April 9, 1957) was a Chilean politician and provisional vice president of Chile in 1931. He was born in Talca, the son of Ursicino Opaso and Margarita Letelier. He completed his studies in his native city ...
, who in turn resigned in favor of the interior minister, Juan Esteban Montero.


Between presidencies

Chile did not reach political stability until the 1932 reelection of Arturo Alessandri, whose economic policies managed to alleviate the depression. He ran for president again in the 1942 election, but lost to
Juan Antonio Rios ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish language, Spanish and Manx language, Manx versions of ''John (given name), John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronoun ...
.


Return to the Presidency

In the 1952 presidential elections, the center-right Agrarian Labor Party (''Partido Agrario Laborista'') declared Ibáñez a presidential candidate. Ibáñez also garnered the support of the left-wing Popular Socialist Party and some feminist political unions — the feminist
María de la Cruz Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
was his campaign manager, but she then refused a ministerial office. Ibáñez promised to "sweep" out political corruption and bad government with his "broom" and was nicknamed the "General of Hope". He criticized traditional political parties but was vague in his proposals and had no clear position in the political spectrum. He won the election with 47%. The
Bolivian National Revolution The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 (), also known as the Revolution of '52, was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (RNM, MNR), which, in alliance with liberals and communists, sought to overthrow the ...
of 1952 influenced the followers of Ibáñez who saw it as a model of the
national-populism Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Est ...
they sought to implement in Chile. His second term was a very modest success. By that time he was already old and ailing, and he left government mostly to his cabinet. His major problems during his presidency were those concerned with the economy. He had no plan to control inflation – one of the most pressing economic problems at the time in Chile – and as a result it skyrocketed to 71% in 1954 and 83% in 1955. Helped by the Klein-Sacks mission, Ibáñez managed to reduce it to 33% when he left the presidency. During his term, public transport costs rose by 50% and economic growth fell to 2.5% Now much more of a centrist politically, Ibáñez won the support of many left-wingers by repealing the ''Law for the Defense of Democracy'', which banned the Communist Party. He did also take a softer approach on crime than in his first presidency. For example, he commuted the death sentence for
The Jackal of Pupunahue José Misael Roldán Concha better known as The Jackal of Pupunahue ( es, El Chacal de Pupunahue) was a Chilean man known for the brutal murder of a woman and five of her seven children. José Misael came from a poor family and had numerous sibli ...
to
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
. Some Chileans continued to support an Ibáñez dictatorship. These ''ibañistas'', most of whom were retired army officers, created the "Línea Recta" (Straight Line) group to establish a new dictatorship. Ibáñez met with these conspirators, but ultimately his typical lack of trust ended the plans for a self-coup. A scandal rocked the Ibáñez administration when the press revealed Ibáñez's meetings with these conspirators.


Retirement and legacy

Ibáñez was succeeded by Jorge Alessandri Rodriguez, the son of his arch-enemy Arturo Alessandri. He abandoned politics and died in Santiago in 1960. As a result of Ibañez's nebulous and vacillating political ideology, he left no intellectual legacy to Chilean politics. His long and often poorly defined presence of more than thirty years on the Chilean political scene (during which he often appeared to have little actual sympathy with the political goals of the groups that supported him at various times, e.g. he was too moderate to agree with the ''nacistas'' and too respectful of existing institutions to emulate Peronism successfully) produced its most significant results in the early years of his caretaker presidency in the 1920s through his efforts to develop new towns in the regions to the south of the Central Valley and to improve existing infrastructure in the South. The Región Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo is named after him, in honor of his attempts to integrate the isolated regions of Aysén and
Magallanes Magallanes may refer to: * Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), Portuguese explorer who led part of the first expedition around the world * Strait of Magellan, the strait between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, located in Chile Places * Magallane ...
into Chile. The General Ibáñez Airport in Punta Arenas is also named after him.


See also

* Government Junta of Chile (1924) * Government Junta of Chile (1925) * Presidential Republic Era


References


Sources

*San Francisco, Alejandro, and Ángel Soto, eds. ''Camino a La Moneda''. Santiago: Centro De Estudios Bicentenario, 2005. *Collier, Simon, and William F. Sater. ''A History of Chile, 1808-2002''. 2nd ed. Cambridge UP, 2002. *Braun, Juan, and Matías Braun, Ignacio Briones, José Díaz, Rolf Lüders, Gert Wagner. ''Economía chilena 1810-1995: Estadísticas históricas''. Santiago: Instituto de Economía de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2000.


External links


Official Biography



Documents related to Ibáñez from the Spanish Wikisource
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibanez del Campo, Carlos 1877 births 1960 deaths Anti-Marxism Anti-Masonry Antisemitism in Chile People from Linares Presidents of Chile Heads of state of Chile Chilean Ministers of the Interior Chilean Ministers of Defense Chilean Army generals Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin Chilean people of Irish descent Chilean anti-communists Chilean people of Spanish descent Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire