The Presidential Republic () is the period in the history of Chile spanning from the approval of the 1925 Constitution on 18 September 1925, under the government of Arturo Alessandri Palma, to the overthrow of the Popular Unity government headed by the President Salvador Allende on 11 September 1973. The period is concurrent with the "Inward Development" (Desarrollo hacia adentro) period in Chilean economic history.
Carlos Ibáñez and Arturo Alessandri Palma
Headed by Colonel Marmaduque Grove, left-wing troops deposed the September Junta in the 1925 coup, and handed power to General Pedro Dartnell as interim president, with the hope of recalling Arturo Alessandri Palma from exile. Dartnell, however, decided to form another junta, the January Junta, which ended with Alessandri's return on March 20, 1925. Alessandri had a new Constitution drafted, and approved in a referendum by 134,421 voters on August 30. The Constitution, which was promulgated on September 18, 1925, reinforced presidential powers over the legislature. Furthermore, Alessandri created a Central Bank, initiating the first rupture with classical liberalism's laissez faire policies.Intervenciones militares y poder factico en la politica chilena (de 1830 al 2000) , Luis Vitale, 2000 (p. 38)
Alessandri's second government began with the support of left-wing and radical groups. However, this second group began to distance itself from the President. In March 1925, Alessandri's government repressed a demonstration, leading to the Marusia massacre (500 deaths), soon followed by La Coruña massacre on June 5, 1925.
Henceforth, Alessandri encountered opposition from his own Minister of Defence, Colonel Carlos Ibáñez del Campo who had also participated to the January 1925 coup and also enjoyed support from the masses. Alessandri wanted to run only one official candidate in the presidential election — himself — while Ibáñez gave his support to a manifesto drafted from various political parties which called on him to run as a candidate. This crisis led to the cabinet's resignation.
Ibáñez then published an open letter to the President, recalling him that he could only issue decree through his approbation, as he was the only minister of the cabinet. Alessandri then decided to nominate Luis Barros Borgoño as Minister of Interior, and resigned a second time from the presidency on October 1, 1925."President of Chile Resigns His Post— Borgono Takes the Place of Alessandri", The Boston Globe, October 1, 1925, p.1
This break with the working classes caused Alessandri to try to maintain a right-wing-radical alliance until 1937, when it took a turn towards the left.
Emiliano Figueroa Larraín (1925–1927)
Alessandri's resignation prompted Ibáñez to convince the parties to find a common candidacy, as required by Alessandri. Emiliano Figueroa Larraín, the candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party, was thus chosen as the governmental candidate, and was elected in October 1925 with nearly 72% of the votes, defeating José Santos Salas from the Social Republican Worker's Union. Alessandri had been confronted by increased opposition from his popular Minister of Defence, Ibáñez. Both had struggled over the purging of the justice apparatus, Ibáñez opposing in particular the President of the Supreme Court, Javier Ángel Figueroa Larraín, who was Emiliano's brother.
In February 1927, Ibáñez succeeded in being designated as Minister of Interior (who, in case of a vacancy in the presidency, would be designated Vice President of Chile - in the Chilean context effectively the designated acting president), and in convincing President Figueroa to resign in April 1927. Ibáñez thus took his place as vice president and called for elections. He ran against communist Elías Lafertte, and won in May 1927 with 98% of the vote.
Carlos Ibáñez (1927–1931)
Carlos Ibáñez's administration remained popular until the outbreak of the Great Depression in 1931. He exercised dictatorial powers and suspended parliamentary elections, instead naming politicians to the Senate and Chamber of Deputies himself. Freedom of press was restricted, 200 politicians were arrested or exiled (among whom were Alessandri and his former ally Marmaduque Grove), the Communist Party was proscribed, and the workers' movement repressed. Before these actions, Congress allowed Ibáñez to rule by decree, finding support in Minister of Finances Pablo Ramírez.
In 1929, Ibáñez requested from Chile's political parties a list of their candidates for the general elections, in order to select for himself which ones would be permitted to campaign. Ibáñez then traveled to the resort town of Termas de Chillán, from where he selected members of both houses. The resulting legislative body which emerged from his choices became known as the “Congreso Termal.”
Ibánez's popularity was buoyed by loans from American banks, which helped to promote a high rate of growth in the country and the launching important public works projects. He ordered the construction of canals, bridges, prisons, ports, the Palace of Cerro Castillo in Viña del Mar, restoration of the façade of La Moneda, and increased public spending.
Ibáñez also reformed the police in 1927, merging the Fiscal Police, the Rural Police, and the Cuerpo de Carabineros into the Carabineros de Chile; he also appointed himself their first Director General. Ibáñez also created the Chilean Air Force, LAN Airlines and the COSACH.
In June 1929, Ibáñez signed the Treaty of Lima with Peru, whereby Chile agreed to return Tacna Province—which had been seized during the War of the Pacific—to Peru in exchange for financial compensation.
Ibáñez's popularity diminished once the effects of the Great Crash started to be felt in Chile at the end of 1930. The prices of saltpeter and copper, on which the Chilean economy depended, plummeted. As a result, all loans were halted and recalled. With no influx of foreign currency and protectionist policies in the United States and Europe, Chile was nearly bankrupt. Tens of thousands of workers in the country's northern mines became unemployed within weeks.
Although Ibáñez's government increased export taxes to 71% and imposed restrictions on exit of devises, he did not the balance of trade, leading to a depletion of Chile's gold reserves. On July 13, 1931, Ibáñez named a "Cabinet of National Salvation" (Gabinete de Salvación Nacional) whose members included Pedro Blanquier and Juan Esteban Montero. Ibáñez's popularity dropped further as Blanquier's revelations on the state of Chile's finances were disseminated widely by Montero's relaxed censorship of the press.
Ibáñez's lavish public spending did not alleviate the situation; his opponents, primarily the exiled Grove and Alessandri, began to plan a comeback. Several conspiracies attempted to remove Ibáñez from power.
Public unrest followed, during which students from the University of Chile and Pontifical Catholic University of Chile protested, later joined by physicians and lawyers. Carabineros killed more than ten people, resulting in Ibáñez's resignation on July 26, 1931, followed by his exile the next day. Before leaving, Ibáñez designated Pedro Opazo as his successor; he, in turn, resigned in favor of Interior Minister Juan Esteban Montero, a member of the Radical Party, who was proclaimed the new president by Congress.
The Socialist Republic (1931–1932)
Meanwhile, Alessandri had returned to Chile, and the presidential campaign began, with Alessandri running against Juan Montero. The October 1931 Presidential election was this time won by the Radical candidate Montero, elected with 64% of the votes, defeating Alessandri, the candidate of the Liberals (35%).
A short time after his investiture in December 1931, President Montero was confronted by the Escuadra uprising, during which revolutionaries took some military ships and sank them in the Bay of Coquimbo. Although the mutiny was peacefully resolved after the rebels' surrender, the fragility of the new government was exposed to the public. On June 4, 1932, planes from El Bosque Air Base fled over the presidential palace, La Moneda, leading to the resignation of Montero's cabinet. The putsch's leaders, Marmaduque Grove, Carlos Dávila and Eugenio Matte, proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Chile.
The military junta dissolved Congress, ordered to the Caja de Crédito Popular banking institution to return pawned objects to their owners and decreed three days of closure of the banks. The new junta was however deeply divided, and on June 16, 1932, less than two weeks after the coup, Carlos Dávila deposed Grove and Matte and deported them to the Easter Islands. Dávila proclaimed himself "provisional President" on July 8, 1932.
The Armed Forces did not support Dávila. On September 13, 1932, they forced him to cede power to his Minister of Interior, General Guillermo Blanche Espejo, who was a supporter of ex-President Carlos Ibáñez.
General Espejo, who was not keen on organizing elections, and who was in turn threatened with a mutiny from the garrisons of Antofagasta and Concepción, ceded power to the President of the Supreme Court, Abraham Oyanedel, who called for elections. The center-right candidate, Arturo Alessandri, subsequently won 54% of the votes in the October 30, 1932 presidential election, defeating his still-exiled opponent Marmaduque Grove, who obtained 18%.
Arturo Alessandri (1932–1938)
In order to see off the threats of a coup, Alessandri relied on the republican forces, trusted to repress any revolts and to not get involved in politics. They were created shortly before Alessandri's return, as a consequence of the civil movement. They functioned in secret and then publicly, marching in a great parade May 7, 1933 in front of the President, who saluted them. They disbanded in 1936, having considered their mission complete. The President asked the Parliament on several occasions to vote for a state of constitutional exception, resulting in actions such as the famous burning of the 285th issue of the satirical magazine Topaze, which published a caricature of Alessandri he considered offensive.
Such precautions were not without reason, especially considering the appearance of new violent movements, such as the Nazi-inspired National Socialist Movement of Chile of Jorge González von Marées. In 1934, the rural rebellion of Ranquil was crushed, 477 workers and Mapuches being killed during the Ranquil Massacre in the upper Bio-Bio River, which had recently been opened for Chilean and foreign settlers of the occupation of the Araucania.Levantamiento campesino en Ranquil, Lonquimay
In the economic sphere, the recovery from the crisis of 1929 was begun with the work of Treasury Minister Gustavo Ross, a pragmatic liberal who implemented a "development inwards" approach to growth. With respect to nitrates, he dissolved COSACH and created COVENSA (Corporation of Nitrate and Iodine Sale), a multi-faceted distributor rather than a producer. He balanced the fiscal deficit with new taxes and resumed payment of the external debt, with losses for holders of Chilean bonds. When the government achieved a surplus, they focused on public works, most notably the construction of the National Stadium in Santiago, inaugurated in December 1938.
The Radical Governments (1938–1952)
The Radical Party's ideology was rooted in the principles of the 1789 French Revolution, upholding the values of liberty, equality, solidarity, participation and well-being. It had been created in the middle of the 19th century as a response to the conservative liberals then in power, and mainly represented the middle classes. It finally succeeded in gaining power as part of the Popular Front left-wing coalition, although its cabinets were fragile due to constant parliamentary instability.
Pedro Aguirre Cerda (1938–1941)