Miguel Adolfo Gerardo Zaldívar Larraín (September 13, 1943 – February 27, 2013) 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 eas ...

an politician and lawyer. He was senator for Aisén and from March 2008 until his death in February 2013 he had been President of the Chilean Senate. He was an historic member of the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social te ...

, leading its right-wing faction until his expulsion from the political party in December 2007. Zaldívar was married to María Alicia Larraín Shaux and had six children. He was the brother of former President of the

Senate of Chile The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile. Composition According to the present Constitution of Chile, the Senate is composed of forty-th ...

and Interior Minister Andrés Zaldívar.

Life and career

Early life

Zaldívar received secondary formation at the ''Instituto de Humanidades Luis Campino''. Then, he went to university at the law faculty of the

Catholic University Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical un ...

in Chile, which he concluded in 1967. As a partner at the law firm "Irureta, Zaldivar, Briones y Hernández", he worked in his profession until he finished his studies.

Political life

In 1965 Zaldívar became the university party leader of the Christian Democrat Party (PDC), and from 1970 to 1972 he occupied the post of national counselor for youth of this party. In the following year he became the national leader of the lawyers of the PDC, and filled this position until 1980. He was a co-founder of the Chilean Commission of

Human Rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

. From 1985 to 1988 Zaldívar was president of the Forum of Political Integration of

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

. From 1983 to 1989 he was part of the fiscal commission of the PDC. Then from 1983 to 1990 he worked as national counselor of the PDC, then he became premier national vice-president. In the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s of December 1993 Zaldívar was elected senator, and formed the senate's mining commission. He went on to form the commission on national defense and the commission of maritime interests, fishing and

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lotus ...

. From 2002 to 2006 he was president of the PDC.

Party expulsion

In early 2006, after he lost the presidency of the PDC to Soledad Alvear, Zaldívar became a vocal critic of the Chilean economic system and voiced his disappointment with the government's "unwillingness" to amend it. He frequently came into conflict with Alvear and in August 2007 the Christian Democrat Party's Supreme Tribunal chastised him for his criticisms. Additionally, he was one of the harshest critics of the

Transantiago Red Metropolitana de Movilidad (English: ''Metropolitan Mobility Network''; named Transantiago until March 2019) is a public transport system that serves Santiago, the capital of Chile. It is considered the most ambitious transport reform undertak ...

public transport system, created under the leadership of the

Concertación The Concertación, officially the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia ( en, Coalition of Parties for Democracy), was a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988. Presidential candidates under its banner won ...

coalition to which the Christian Democrats belonged. In November 2007, Zaldívar, together with senators from the Alliance for Chile and independents Fernando Flores and

Carlos Bianchi Carlos Arcesio Bianchi (born 26 April 1949), nicknamed ''El Virrey'' (''The Viceroy''), is an Argentine former football player and manager. A prolific goalscorer, although he had a bright career as a forward in Argentina and France, Bianchi is ...

, voted against continued funding for the Transantiago, against the wishes of his party's leadership. Alvear and her followers accused Zaldívar of "siding with the right" and requested his expulsion from the party. In December, the party leadership formally presented the expulsion request to the Supreme Tribunal of the party, on the basis of his decision to ignore the party wishes on the Transantiago funding bill and for Zaldívar's harsh criticisms of the leadership's actions regarding corruption. The Tribunal finally decided to expel Zaldívar on December 27, 2007. On March 12, 2008 he became President of the Senate with the votes from the right-wing Alliance for Chile.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaldivar, Adolfo 1943 births 2013 deaths Presidents of the Senate of Chile Members of the Senate of Chile Ambassadors of Chile to Argentina Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni Christian Democratic Party (Chile) politicians Independent Regionalist Party politicians Deaths from cancer in Chile Deaths from pancreatic cancer Zaldivar