Enrique Ortúzar
Enrique Cornelio Ortúzar Escobar was a Chilean lawyer, academic and politician. He served as a minister of State during the government of President Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez.
A leading conservative thinker, he was chosen by General Augusto Pinochet to lead the process that produced the constitutional text that has governed the country since 1980.
Family and education
He was born in Santiago, Chile on November 17, 1914, the son of Laura Escobar Smith and the farmer and conservative politician Enrique Ortúzar Vergara, who served as mayor of Teno in 1918. His brother Ramón was a physician and surgeon.He completed his primary and secondary education at the Instituto Andrés Bello, and then studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and at the University of Chile, graduating in 1939. A top student of his cohort, he received the Premio Tocornal, awarded to the best graduating student in that faculty of law. He wrote a degree thesis on the non-observance of the law in relation to juridical acts, and later held a chair in civil law at that institution.
He married Luz Santa María Ovalle, with whom he had five children: Álvaro Andrés, Enrique, Luz, Margarita, and Jorge Ramón.
Public life
He worked in the Chilean Senate, specifically in the Secretariat of the Commission on the Constitution, Legislation, Justice and Regulations. On November 3, 1958, President Jorge Alessandri appointed him simultaneously Minister Secretary General of Government and Minister of the Interior. He served as Secretary General of Government until the end of the administration on November 3, 1964; he remained Minister of the Interior until January 19, 1959, when he resigned citing health reasons. He returned to the Interior portfolio on a provisional basis between April 28 and May 2, 1960, and again between November 6 and 10 of the same year, acting for the incumbent Sótero del Río. Likewise, on September 5, 1960, he was appointed minister of justice—a position he held until the end of the administration—and between July 7 and August 26, 1961, he acted as substitute for the then minister of foreign affairs, Sótero del Río. On September 14, 1963, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in his own right, serving in that post until December 17 of the same year. In 1970, he formed the Movimiento Independiente Alessandrista in support of the former president's presidential candidacy that year.After the 1973 coup d'état, he collaborated with the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet, and was early appointed to chair the Commission for the Study of the New Constitution, commonly known as the Ortúzar Commission. In that role, he expressed his conservative outlook, advocating a particular view of democracy protected against dangers that the Chilean right attributed to Marxism, and reviving reforms that had not been adopted during the Alessandri government, such as the integration of the Senate by members not elected by popular vote.
He also served on the Council of State established in 1976 to review the work of the Ortúzar Commission. In that capacity, on October 18, 1978, he delivered to the governing junta the draft of a new constitution. His role in the institutional design embodied in the 1980 Constitution was therefore significant. Regarding his work on drafting the 1980 Constitution, he stated:
From 1982, and for a period of eight years, he was a minister of the Constitutional Court of Chile established by the 1980 Constitution, tasked with ensuring its correct application.
Among other activities, he was a member of the Club de La Unión and the Club de Polo. He died in Santiago on February 26, 2005, aged 90.