Pedro Enrique Alfonso
Pedro Enrique Alfonso Barrios was a Chilean lawyer, professor, and politician. A member of the Radical Party, he served as its president between 1934 and 1936 and again in 1959.
He served as a Deputy representing the 4th Departmental Grouping for two consecutive terms between 1933 and 1938. He later served as a Minister of State under the administrations of four Presidents: Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Juan Antonio Ríos, Gabriel González Videla, and Jorge Alessandri.
Family and education
Alfonso was born in the Chilean commune of Ovalle on 25 March 1903, the son of Pedro Lincoln Alfonso Muñoz and María Luisa Barrios Barrios. He was the grandson of politician and engineer Antonio Alfonso Cavada and the nephew of Federico Alfonso Muñoz.He completed his primary education at the Liceo of Ovalle and his secondary education at the Internado Nacional Barros Arana in Santiago. He later studied law at the University of Chile, qualifying as a lawyer on 4 December 1925. His undergraduate thesis was entitled Courts of First Instance of Lesser Jurisdiction: Organization, Jurisdiction, and Procedure. During his student years, he served as president of the University Students’ Center of Coquimbo and of the Law Students’ Center at his university in Santiago.
He married Esperanza González Toro in Santiago on 11 July 1931, with whom he had four children: Esperanza, Carmen, Pedro José, and Pedro Enrique. Among his grandchildren is lawyer Gerardo Varela, who served as Minister of Education during the Sebastián Piñera's second government.
Professional career
Alfonso began his professional career in Temuco, where he served as a court attorney and later as a teacher of civic education at the city's boys’ high school between 1927 and 1929. He later worked as second clerk of the Fifth Criminal Court of Santiago; as an employee of the prosecutor's office of the Court of Appeals of Temuco; as a court attorney of that court in 1928; and as presiding judge of the department of Ovalle from 8 January 1929. He retired from the legal profession on 11 June 1956.Among other activities and positions, he served as president of the airline LAN Chile and of the board of the newspaper La Nación; as a member of the board of the Central Bank of Chile; as president of Compañía Industrial Vera S.A.; and as director of Confecciones Brolly S.A. and Comandari S.A. Hilados y Paños de Lana. He was also president of the Agricultural and Livestock Society of Ovalle and director of the firm Agroservicio. In addition, he served as general representative in Europe of the Corporación de Ventas del Salitre y Yodo and as honorary commercial attaché to the embassy in London, England.
In parallel, he was engaged in agriculture as the owner of the estate “Camarico,” located in the commune of Punitaqui.
Political career
Parliamentarian
Alfonso joined the Radical Party of Chile at a young age, a party founded by both his paternal grandfather and maternal great-grandfather. By the age of fifteen, he was already publishing political commentary in the newspaper La Construcción of Ovalle. He served as president of the party in that commune and as national president in the periods 1934–1936 and 1959.In the 1932 Chilean general election, he was elected as Deputy for the 4th Departmental Grouping of La Serena, Elqui, Ovalle, and Illapel for the 1933–1937 legislative term. He served on the Standing Committee on the Constitution, Legislation and Justice, the Committee on Agriculture and Colonization, and as an alternate member of the Finance Committee.
In the 1937 Chilean parliamentary election, he was re-elected as Deputy for the same grouping for the 1937–1941 term. He served as an alternate member of the Standing Committee on the Constitution, Legislation and Justice and of the Committee on Roads and Public Works, and as a full member of the Finance Committee. He did not complete this term, however, due to his appointment as Minister of State in the cabinet of President Pedro Aguirre Cerda in December 1938. He was replaced in his seat by his uncle, Federico Alfonso Muñoz, who took the oath of office on 1 March 1939.
During his parliamentary tenure, his most notable legislative initiatives concerned agricultural development, budgetary organization, the introduction of divorce with dissolution of marriage, and administrative probity.
Minister of State and presidential candidate
Alfonso was appointed Minister of the Interior on 24 December 1938 under President Pedro Aguirre Cerda, serving until 26 December 1939. During this period, he confronted the aftermath of the 1939 Chillán earthquake. He was subsequently reassigned as Minister of Finance, serving until 7 November 1940.Later, during the administration of President Juan Antonio Ríos, he was appointed Minister of Economy and Trade, a post he held between 14 May 1945 and 3 February 1946.
Under President Gabriel González Videla, he was again appointed Minister of the Interior, serving from 27 February 1950 to 29 March 1951. During a trip by President González Videla to the United States, Alfonso served as Vice President of the Republic between 11 April and 8 May 1950.
With the consent of President González Videla, Alfonso became the Radical Party's candidate in the 1952 Chilean presidential election, with the support of the Radical Party, the Falange Nacional, and a faction of the Democratic Party. He placed third in the election, obtaining 190,360 votes, well behind liberal candidate Arturo Matte and former President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, who was ultimately elected President of the Republic.
Subsequently, during the administration of President Jorge Alessandri, Alfonso was appointed Minister of Agriculture on 1 August 1963, leaving office on 14 September of the same year.