Jorge Baraona

Jorge Baraona Puelma was a Chilean lawyer, farmer and conservative politician.
He served as a Deputy during the XXXIX Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile, representing the 10th Departmental Group corresponding to San Fernando and Santa Cruz.

Early life and career

Baraona was born in Santiago to Luis Antonio Baraona Calvo and Ester Puelma Castro. He married Alicia Urzúa Souper, with whom he had ten children, including Pablo Baraona, Minister of Economy during the Augusto Pinochet regime.
He studied at the Colegio San Ignacio and later at the Faculty of Law of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, graduating as a lawyer in 1924 with the thesis *Desocupación Obrera*.
He worked as a lawyer for the Municipality of Rancagua and for the Gobernación of the Department of Cachapoal. He also dedicated himself to agriculture, managing the Nilahue Baraona estate in Pumanque.

Political career

A member of the Conservative Party, Baraona was elected Deputy for the 10th Departmental Group for the 1941–1945 term. He served on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonisation.
In the April 1950 municipal elections he was elected Municipal Councillor for Pumanque and subsequently served as Mayor between 1950 and 1953.
He joined the National Party in 1966 upon the conservative–liberal merger.

Later life and death

Baraona remained active in agricultural and public service roles, serving as vice-president of the Agrarian Colonisation Fund, President of Arrocera Colchagua S.A., and as a councillor of the National Agriculture Society. He was also a member and director of the Club Hípico and the Club de La Unión.
He died on 30 April 1971 while being transported from Pumanque to Santiago after suffering a heart attack, during the agrarian reform expropriation of the Nilahue Baraona estate.