René Cortázar (Santiago, February 29, 1952) is a Chilean economist, researcher, academic, and politician 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 tea ...

(PDC). He was Minister of State for Presidents Patricio Aylwin and Michelle Bachelet.

Biography

He is the second of the children of the marriage of the agricultural engineers and Carmen Sanz Briso-Montiano. His father worked for many years at La Platina, a property of the University of Chile, where he carried out agricultural research. He was awarded the National Prize for Applied and Technological Sciences in 1994.El Mercurio (Santiago), 22 de diciembre de 2007, El Sábado, p.16». Archivado desde el original el 4 de marzo de 2016.
Consultado el 25 de febrero de 2020.

La Tercera (), formerly known as (), is a daily newspaper published in Santiago, Chile and owned by Copesa. It is s closest competitor. is part of Periódicos Asociados Latinoamericanos ( Latin American Newspaper Association), an organization of fourte ...

(Santiago), 8 de abril de 2007, Reportajes, p.6 He studied at the Colegio del Verbo Divino in the capital and later graduated from PUC with a degree i
business engineering
After graduating, he became a researcher-assistant at Cieplan, becoming one of the founders of the study center together with

Alejandro Foxley Alejandro Tomás Foxley Rioseco (born 26 May 1939 in Viña del Mar) is a Chilean economist and politician. He was the Foreign Minister of Chile from 2006 to 2009 and previously served as Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1994 and leader of the C ...

, Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, and

José Pablo Arellano José Pablo Arellano Marin (Santiago, March 18, 1952) is an economist, academic, researcher, company director, consultant and Chilean politician, current member of Amarillos por Chile. He was Minister of Education under the governments of Eduardo ...

. Since 1975 he has been married to Ana María Valdés, with whom he had three daughters. Then he went to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for two and a half years, where he received a doctorate in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. Later he was a professor at the Institute o
Economics
of the Catholic University (PUC), a professor at th
Department of Economics at the University of Chile
and a visiting professor at universities in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and the

Political career

Beginning

In 1972 he became a Christian Democratic Party (PDC) member. He was an active collaborator in the "No" campaign in the 1988 referendum, which sought to remove dictator

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

. His primary role was to be the coordinator of the labor commission of the opposition

Coalition of Parties for Democracy A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

Minister of Patricio Aylwin

In the Government of Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), he served as Minister of Labor and Social Welfare.

(Santiago), 28 de marzo de 2007, p4 As Aylwin's minister, he was responsible for enacting the first Labor Code approved in a democracy. For the first time in Chile, tripartite agreements were also signed between the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, the Confederation of Production and Commerce and the government. During the same period, the Chile Joven program was implemented to train low-income unemployed youth. Later, together with

Juan Villarzú Juan Rodolfo Villarzú Rohde (born 16 May 1944) is a Chilean politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people ...

and Osvaldo Rosales, he coordinated the economic program of

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz–Tagle (; born 24 June 1942) is a Chilean politician and civil engineering, civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senate of Chile, Senator, fulfilling the role of ...

when he was a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic in the 1993 elections.

Executive director of TVN

Between 1995 and 2000, he was executive director of Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), establishing bases that made the state channel profitable. During his period as executive director of

Televisión Nacional de Chile Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) is a Chilean Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It was founded by order of President Eduardo Frei Montalva and it was launched nationwide on 18 September 1969. Since then, the company has been re ...

from 1995 to 2000. He published a book of editorial Guidelines. In the elaboration of those Guidelines, there was ample participation of all the professionals of TVN. The Guidelines address issues related to professional responsibility and programming content in press and entertainment. Some chapters refer to privacy, protection of minors, women, violence, politics, elections, terrorism, and news related to TVN, among other topics. There have been many debates with respect to the application of the

Guidelines to specific issues, during the period that Cortázar was executive director of

(1995-2000). For example, in the cases of journalistic investigations of the protection of minors and the asbestos issue.

Bachelet's Minister

On March 27, 2007, he becam
Minister of Transport and Telecommunications
in the first government of

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

, replacing

Sergio Espejo Sergio Espejo Yaksic (born 15 March 1967) is a Chilean politician and lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a law ...

. His appointment was during the severe Transantiago Crisis regarding the urban transport system of the Chilean capital implemented in 2006. In December 2007, due to the growing and complex problems of the system, and as promised, he presented his resignation, but President Bachelet did not accept it. During Michelle Bachelet, he assumed the position of

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

as a surrogate before the suspension —which occurred on April 3, 2008— and subsequent dismissal thirteen days later of

Yasna Provoste Yasna Provoste Campillay (born 16 December 1969) is a Chilean people, Chilean teacher and Christian Democrat Party of Chile, Christian Democrat politician of Diaguita descent who served as a minister (government), minister during the presidenci ...

. On April 17,

Mónica Jiménez Mónica Eliana Jiménez de la Jara (December 25, 1940 – August 25, 2020) was a Chilean Christian Democrat politician and Minister of Education. Early life Jiménez came from a political family. Her father Oscar Jiménez Pinochet was Minister ...

was appointed as provoste's successor, Cortázar ceasing to hold office.

Subsequent activities

After being away from contingent politics, he began negotiations in 2011, to be proclaimed as the PDC candidate for the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for the

Antofagasta Region The Antofagasta Region (, ) is one of Chile's Administrative divisions of Chile, sixteen first-order administrative divisions. Being the second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta Province, Antofagasta, El ...

. At the end of 2012, the region PDC board unanimously endorsed him, which cleared the way for the parliamentary elections of 2013. Despite this, he did not take part in the elections. In 2013, he joined the programmatic team of

in her second candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic.

Candidate for the Constitutional Convention

René Cortázar was part of the "Approval List" for district 8 in the 2021 conventional constituent elections. Cortázar's candidacy was ultimately unsuccessful despite being the one that received the largest sum of donations in all of Chile. In 2022, he joined the

Cristián Warnken Cristián Warnken (born January 28, 1961) is a Chilean literature professor, columnist, interviewer, radio personality, podcaster, and television presenter. Similarly, he is the leader of Amarillos por Chile. In 2020 he interviewed President Seb ...

's political movement

Amarillos por Chile Amarillos por Chile (), sometimes written Amarillos x Chile (AxCh), is a political movement and party in Chile which was established with the goal to stop the Constitutional Convention. It was founded in 2022 by Cristián Warnken and brings tog ...

, which actively participated in the plebiscite on the Proposal for a New Constitution of the Constituent Convention, in defense of the rejection option. On September 23, the Yellow Movement for Chile began procedures to become a political party. In 2022, he presented his resignation from the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) after 50 years of militancy.

Business career

Before becoming Minister of State, Cortázar was a member of the boards of D&S, Entel Chile, CorpBanca, Almacenes Paris, AES Gener,

La Polar La Polar is the fourth largest retail company in Chile, behind Falabella, Paris S.A and Ripley S.A. The company has 43 stores, being 38 in Chile and 5 in Colombia and offers various products, such as clothing, accessories, sporting goods, bea ...

, Moneda, ILC and ICB He was also vice president o
Icare
and director of the Alberto Hurtado Center for Labor Studies. He also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Cieplan study center. On August 10, 2010, four days after Andrónico Luksic Craig announced his entry into the station with 67% he became the chairman of the board of directors of Canal 13. He left office in July 2012 to rejoin Cieplan. In April 2015, he resumed responsibility at the station.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortazar, Rene 1952 births Christian Democratic Party (Chile) politicians Members of Amarillos por Chile Living people