Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva (; 16 January 1911 – 22 January 1982) was a Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and the 28th president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile (1994–2000).
Said political party supported the Armed Forces intervention to remove his successor Salvador Allende from office in 1973, after the Chamber of Deputies, on 22 August 1973, accused Allende of violating the Constitution. He was later a vocal opponent of the Augusto Pinochet regime. On 22 January 1982, Frei died in Santiago, Chile, following surgery. Assassination was suspected by some but has never been proven. On 18 August 2023, the Supreme Court ruled out the assassination charges and declared innocent all those accused.
Early life Eduardo Frei Montalva was born in Santiago on 16 January 1911, the son of Eduard Frei Schlinz, a Germanic immigrant born in Feldkirch, Austria (whose mother was Bavarian and his father was Swiss), and Victoria Montalva Martínez. In 1914, his family moved to Lontué, where his father had been hired as an accountant at a winery. In addition, his other two siblings, Arturo and Irene, were born. He attended the Escuela Pública de Lontué (Public School of Lontué). The winery San Pedro is still well known in Lontué and Molina 200 km south of Santiago and was founded in 1865 by the brothers Bonifacio and José Gregorio Correa Albano.
In 1919 the family returned to Santiago and Eduardo, as a young man, entered the boarding school Seminario Conciliar de Santiago where he remained until 1922. In 1923, he entered Instituto de Humanidades Luis Campino, where he graduated in 1928, at the age of 17.
As an 18-year-old, he entered Universidad Católica School of Law in 1929. For two years, he had been visiting María, the sister of his friend, Alfredo Ruiz-Tagle. He attended high school and went on to study law, graduating as a lawyer in 1933. He married María Ruiz-Tagle with whom he had 7 children. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000.
Political career He began his political career in the Conservative Party, but was among a group of young men who founded their own party in 1938: the Falange Nacional. He was minister of Public Works in 1945, and in 1949, Frei was elected senator for Atacama and Coquimbo. The same year he published "Historia de los Partidos Políticos Chilenos" ("History of Chilean Political Parties") in collaboration with Albert Edwards Vives. In 1950, he traveled to New York as a UN delegate. In 1952, at 41 years of age, Frei Montalva announced his first candidacy in the presidential elections.
The 1952 election was won by Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. Later, President Ibañez requested Frei to organize an executive committee. However, this never came to be. In 1954, the UN appointed him President of the Commission in charge of elaborating the report of the Conference of Chancellors held in Rio de Janeiro. Some of its members were: Carlos Lleras Restrepo, former President of Colombia, and Raúl Prebisch director of ECLAC. The report served as a basis for subsequent studies on economic development and the integration of Latin America. In 1956 he was elected Senator in Santiago by first majority.
On 27 July 1957, the Falange Nacional became the Christian Democratic Party of Chile, and he became the undisputed leader. Frei Montalva was offered once more the candidacy for president of the Republic in the 1958 elections. Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez was elected president while Eduardo Frei Montalva took only third place.
During these years he published three more books: "Sentido y Forma de una Política" ("Meaning and Shape of Politics"), "La Verdad Tiene Su Hora" ("Truth Has Its Time"), and "Pensamiento y Acción" ("Thought and Action"). In 1960, he lectured at conference “The Mission of Universities in Latin America” in Montevideo; a widely promoted conference at that time. In 1961, he was elected President of the First World Christian Democratic Party Congress, held in Santiago, Chile. The congress was attended by delegations from throughout Latin America, European, North American, and African countries. That year he was invited as special guest to a seminar on the problems of Developing Nations, held at Oxford University. The seminar was attended by delegates from all over the world.
Between 1960 and 1962, he lectured at Columbia University on problems in Latin America. In 1962, he gave a conference at Notre Dame University on the development and the integration of Latin American countries. He ran for president again in 1964. Declassified documents show that from 1962 through 1964, the CIA spent a total of $2.6 million to finance his presidential campaign and spent $3 million in anti-Allende propaganda "to scare voters away from Allende's FRAP coalition". The CIA considered its role in the victory of Frei a great success.
That year he was elected with his "Revolución en Libertad" ("Revolution in Liberty") slogan by a large margin (56%), defeating Socialist candidate Salvador Allende who only received 39% of the vote, but who subsequently won the 1970 Chilean presidential election.
Administration
Frei's administration began many reforms in Chilean society. "Promoción Popular" (Social Promotion), "Reforma Agraria" (Agrarian Reform), "Reforma Educacional" (Education Reform), and "Juntas de Vecinos" (Neighborhood Associations) were some of his main projects. He also took measures to rationalize drug supply. On 4 September 1964, having one of the highest turnouts in Chilean history, Frei Montalva was elected President of the Republic of Chile. He took office two months later, on November 4.
The Frei presidency did much to tackle poverty, as characterised by the growing share of wages as a proportion of GNP. By the end of the Frei presidency, the wage and salaried sector received close to 51% of GNP, compared with 42% at the end of the Alessandri presidency. This positive redistribution of wealth was encouraged by government policies, particularly in the rural sector, where wages rose by 40% in real terms. Between 1964 and 1970, total enrollment in education increased by 46%, while around 250,000 houses were built, mostly for the poor.Alan Angell, "Chile since 1958," in Latin America Since 1930: Spanish South America, ed. Leslie Bethell, vol 8 in Cambridge History of Latin America (New York: Cambridge University Press), 1991; DOI:10.1017/CHOL9780521266529.007
Frei's administration also introduced a wealth tax and carried out a property tax reassessment in order to make the taxation system more progressive. Taxes as a percentage of GNP increased 12.8% in 1964 to 21.2% in 1970. The social reforms introduced by Frei's government led to a huge increase in public expenditure, which rose as a proportion of GNP from 35.7% in 1965 to 46.9% in 1970. Expenditures on education, agriculture, and housing rose went up considerably, with spending on housing increasing by 70% in real terms in 1965 alone.
During Frei's six years in office, an average of 40,000 housing units were constructed each year, and a total of 100,000 lots were assigned. Investments in primary care clinics and hospitals were also carried out, with 20 clinics and 16 hospitals built between 1965 and 1969.
In 1965, he started a presidential tour through France, the United Kingdom, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy and the Vatican. During this time, he also visited countries in Latin America such as: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela; places where he delivered important speeches on international issues.
On his return, he initiated important plans involving housing, education, reforestation, land reform, health, and the nationalization of copper. The Comisión Nacional de Cultura (National Culture Commission), the Consejería Nacional de la Promoción Popular and the Juntas de Vecinos ("Neighborhood Committees") were also created.
One area of reform given high priority by the Frei Administration was the fostering of networks of local, self-help organisations (especially among the "unorganised" residents of the shantytowns), which was placed under a national supervisory council. As a result of the government's actions, mothers' centres, sports associations, youth clubs, residents' committees, and parents' groups proliferated, with an estimated 20,000 units of this type in existence by 1970, according to government figures. Half of these new units were mothers' centres, with an estimated membership of 45,000 women, and the government claimed to have distributed 70,000 sewing machines to these centres. According to Frei, these measures had given "a new form of life and hope" to hundreds of thousands of people.A History of Chile, 1808–1994, by Simon Collier and William F. Sater
Improvements were also made in areas such as housing, education and medical care. Between 1964 and 1970, around 260,000 houses were constructed (around a third by the state housing corporation CORVI) and about 200,000 housing solutions were claimed (referring to the provision of sites for self-help housing projects). The number of hospitals (and beds) doubled under the PDC, and spending on education as a proportion of public expenditure rose from one-seventh to one-fifth. Around 3,000 new schools were built throughout the country, and by 1970 95% of children in the relevant age group were covered by primary education. Expenditure on scholarships and school loans was doubled, and school enrollment was raised from 1.8 million to 2.9 million.
Expenditure on education doubled, the number of years of basic education was increased from six to eight, and a two-shift school-day was introduced that doubled the capacity of the country's system. Frei's initiatives in education led to increased rates of enrollment in both primary and secondary education, with primary school coverage reaching 90% in the majority of rural and urban areas by 1970, while secondary school coverage reached 49% in 1970, compared with 18% at the start of the 1960s.Pribble (2008), pg. 136
A new law establishing work-accident and occupational disease insurance was signed into law in January 1968, providing for compulsory coverage of all salaried employees and wage earners, including apprentices and domestic servants. In March that year, a piece of legislation creating government-sponsored health insurance for public and private salaried employees and their dependents was signed into law.
Basic health services were expanded with the training of community health workers, the building of rural health clinics, and the shifting of financial and personnel resources from hospitals to community health centres. These efforts contributed to a steep decline in infant mortality in Chile during the 1960s–1970s.
Much attention was also given to the improvement of social and economic conditions in the countryside. Both rural unionisation and agrarian reform were accelerated, with the government starting to expropriate estates in a serious way. Family allowance for farmers was doubled, the agricultural minimum wage was raised to the same level as its urban equivalent, and an agrarian reform law signed by Frei in July 1967 made all farms of more than eighty "basic" hectares liable to expropriation. The Frei Administration had thus made a major start to land reform, a policy continued by the Allende Government.