Manuel José Ossandón Irarrázabal, colloquially "Cote Ossandón", (born

Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it is Chile's fourth largest city w ...

, Región de Valparaíso, 24 August 1962) is an agricultural technician and a senator of Chile for the 8th Senatorial District. He was elected during the parliamentarian elections of 2013, for the period 2014–2022. Member of Chilean center-right party Renovación Nacional (RN). He renounced in July 2016. Ossandón is actually one of the four most popular candidates for the presidential election of Chile in 2017 and was the second most voted senator of Chile during the parliamentarian elections of 2013. In 2015 he was recognized as the most prolific senator of the country.

Early life

Ossandón was born in Chile in Viña del Mar and raised in Pirque. After his studies, he worked as an agricultural engineer. In the countryside, he witnessed high rates of

rural poverty Rural poverty refers to poverty in rural areas, including factors of rural society, rural economy, and political systems that give rise to the poverty found there.Janvry, A. de, E. Sadoulet, and R. Murgai. 2002“Rural Development and Rural Pol ...

and inequalities there and throughout Chile.

Political career

Beginnings

He started in politics as mayor of

Pirque Pirque () is a commune of Chile in Cordillera Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region; it is located 2.8 kilometers southeast of Puente Alto and 21.3 kilometers south-southeast of the center of Santiago. It is situated at the base of the Cajón de ...

's municipality from year 1992 to 2000 and mayor of

Puente Alto Puente, a word meaning ''bridge'' in Spanish language, may refer to: People * Puente (surname) Places *La Puente, California, USA * Puente Alto, city and commune of Chile *Puente de Ixtla, city in Mexico *Puente Genil, village in the Spanish provi ...

from 2000 to 2012. A self-described social Christian, Ossandón has been focused during all his years as a politician fighting for poverty reduction and for increasing the quality of life of Chileans. He is very well known as well for fighting against Chilean political corruption, social injustices and enterprise collusions. By the time he turned 30, he decided to run for mayor in the rural town of Pirque, a suburb of Santiago. He won with 21.86% of the votes and was re-elected for the next term, garnering 64.52% of the vote. In 2000, he decided to run for mayor in the largest municipality of Chile, Puente Alto. He won with 45% of the vote, was re-elected in 2004 with 60% , then re-elected again in 2008 with 70%.

As Senator

His years as mayor helped Ossandón gain increasing popularity and helped him to get elected as a senator of Chile. He ran for president in 2017, obtaining 27,6% in the presidential primaries (Sebastian Piñera won the candidacy with 57,5% of the vote). Ossandón has built a reputation as a leading progressive voice on issues such as campaign finance reform, fighting political and business corruption. Actually, he's candidate to the primaries elections for the "

Chile Vamos (Spanish for "Let’s go Chile”) is a centre-right to right-wing political coalition of three political parties in Chile. The coalition was created on 29 January 2015 by the general secretaries of the Independent Democrat Union (UDI), Nationa ...

" coalition and the most popular candidate of the center right according to the CEP poll of 2016. In May 2020 he contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and recovered the following month. An opponent of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

, he criticized President

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

for pushing the bill legalizing it in the Chilean Congress, calling it a "low blow, it was a tremendous stab for many people who have a more conservative position, just before entering into an election, which was not necessary."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ossandon, Manuel Jose Chilean politicians Chilean people of French descent 1962 births Living people Inacap alumni National Renewal (Chile) politicians Senators of the LV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Senators of the LVI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile