Víctor Pey Casado (31 August 1915 – 5 October 2018) was a Spanish-born Chilean engineer, professor and businessman. He was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, the son of writer and priest Segismundo Pey Ordeix, and Manuela Casado, from Valladolid. At the age of two, he moved with his family to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, he fought on the Republican side and was a member to the

Durruti Column The Durruti Column (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column (or military unit) formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recogniz ...

. He formed part of the Spanish government in exile as a technical advisor to the War Industries Commission of Catalonia. He crossed the Pyrenees into France on 25 January 1939, was interned by French authorities and sent to a prison camp at

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

. In September 1939,

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

arranged that Pey and his family board the

SS Winnipeg SS ''Winnipeg'' was a French steamer notable for arriving at Valparaíso, Chile, on 3 September 1939, with 2,200 Spanish immigrants aboard. The refugees were fleeing Spain after Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The Chilean P ...

for Chile. After arriving 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 ...

, he found work as a surveyor, together with the engineer José Saitúa, who was in charge of the construction of an aqueduct between Laguna Negra and Santiago. Pey became a naturalized Chilean citizen and worked with his brother Raúl in an engineering company. Pey met

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

during a party hosted by Aníbal Jara, editor of La Hora newspaper. When Allende became President in 1970, Pey became an advisor to the Popular Unity government and was one of his closest associates. He purchased the newspaper El Clarín during Allende's presidency, which became the largest newspaper in Chile. After the

Pinochet dictatorship Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

was imposed in 1973, El Clarín was shut down. Pey was persecuted by the military junta and went into exile, not returning until the 1990s. In 1997, Pey initiated a lawsuit against the Chilean government in the World Bank Tribunal for the expropriation of his newspaper. Successive Chilean administrations held the position of not paying Pey. After a 19-year legal battle, the case was dismissed without Pey receiving any damages. Pey identified as an agnostic. He was named honorary rector of the

University of 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.

in 2015, coinciding with his centenary. He died of natural causes on 5 October 2018, aged 103.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pey, Victor 1915 births 2018 deaths Chilean academics 20th-century Chilean businesspeople Chilean centenarians Men centenarians 20th-century Chilean engineers Naturalized citizens of Chile Spanish emigrants to Chile People from Barcelona Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)