Germán Picó Cañas (1905–1988) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an lawyer, businessman and politician. He was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

on May 25, 1905 and died in that same city on July 12, 1988. He was a member of the

Radical Party of Chile The Radical Party (Spanish: ''Partido Radical'') was a Chilean political party. It was formed in 1863 in Copiapó by a split in the Liberal Party. Not coincidentally, it was formed shortly after the organization of the Grand Lodge of Chile, and ...

. Among the positions he held include that of finance minister under President

Gabriel González Videla Gabriel Enrique González Videla (; November 22, 1898 – August 22, 1980) was a Chilean politician and lawyer who served as the 24th president of Chile from 1946 to 1952. He had previously been a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 193 ...

Education and career

He studied at the

Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera, often shortened to Instituto Nacional (National Institute), is a public boys' school in downtown Santiago, Chile which teaches 4.400 students between 7th and 12th grade. 170 teachers are employed. ...

of Santiago and then graduated as a lawyer at the

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

(1931). He joined the Radical Party and, during the government of

was finance minister twice; for half a year in 1947 and then from 1951 to 1952). He was also vice president of the Corporation for Economic Development Agency, CORFO. Between the two ministries in 1949, at the request of Gonzalez Videla, he acquired, along with Raúl Jaras, the rights to the shares of ''La Hora'' newspaper, which in fact belonged to the Radical Party, but which was virtually bankrupt. Efforts to clean up the newspaper failed, so Picó and Jaras decided to take out an evening paper, ''La Tercera de la Hora'', which appeared on 7 July 1950. Pico was, in fact, the one who had control of the newspaper. In 1954 he was elected president of the National Press Association, a position he held until 1975. As an entrepreneur, he also led the Association of Industrial Metal and Metal Mechanics, Asimet. In 1969 he was, along with Julio Durán, among those who divided the Radical Party to form the Radical Democratic Party and supported the candidacy of

Jorge Alessandri Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez (; 19 May 1896 – 31 August 1986) was the 27th President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean right in the crucial presidential election of 1970, which he lost to Salvador All ...

in the 1970 presidential election. In 1985 he was with

Sergio Onofre Jarpa Sergio Onofre Jarpa Reyes (8 March 1921 – 19 April 2020) was a Chilean politician who served as a member of the cabinet during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Biography Coming from a rural background, he studied agriculture a ...

, one of the founders of the

National Labour Front The National Labour Front (NLF) was a political party in Guyana. History The NLF was established by Lionel Luckhoo in 1956 after a split in the United Democratic Party.Odeen Ishmael (2002Cheddi Jagan - Glimpses of an Internationalist/ref> Luckh ...

and two years later, in 1987 he was one of the founding members of Renovación Nacional. He died in Santiago, Chile on July 12, 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pico Cannas, German Chilean politicians University of Chile alumni People from Santiago 1905 births 1988 deaths 20th-century Chilean lawyers