JUAN ANTONIO RIVERS: BIOGRAPHY, PRESIDENCY AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Juan Antonio Ríos was a politician and lawyer who ruled Chile between 1942 and 1946 and held various legislative and administrative positions during his public career. From an early age he began his political activity in the Radical Party.

His was the second of the three radical governments of Chile, immediately after the administration of Pedro Aguirre Cerda. He was succeeded in office by Gabriel González Videla, after submitting his resignation to the Presidency due to a devastating cancer that blinded his life.

Juan Antonio Rios Morales

He quickly climbed political positions within his party where he began as a member of the Radical Youth, until he became the national president of that organization. He held legislative, administrative and diplomatic positions, being elected president in the elections of February 2, 1942.

He was a politician with an authoritarian tendency and left thinking, who participated in the conspiracy against the government of the president, Juan Esteban Montero.

Biography

Juan Antonio Ríos, was born in Cañete, Arauco province, on November 10, 1888. His parents were Anselmo Ríos Gallegos, a wealthy farmer, and Lucinda Morales Morales. She was just 19 years old when she married her father, who was then 69 years old.

His primary studies were carried out in a rural school in Cañete, while his secondary education was between the Liceo de Lebu and the Liceo Enrique Molina Garmendia de Concepción. At the University of Chile in Concepción he obtained the title of lawyer with the memory of degree "Origin and Development of the Police in Chile".

In Lebu he served as court clerk and later practiced law as a member of the law firm of Dr. Carlos Roberto Elgueta. Some time later, he worked together with the Radical Party senator, Enrique Oyarzún Mondaca.

For six years he worked as a prosecutor for the Caja de Crédito Minero, as well as a director of the Caja de Vivienda Barata, the Publishing Company of the newspaper La Hora and the Corporation for the Promotion of Production (CORFO). Likewise, he was president of the National Sack Factory and of the La Previsión Insurance Company.

Political activity

From an early age, Ríos Morales had a penchant for politics, which is why he joined the ranks of the Radical Youth. He came to occupy various positions within the structure of the Radical Party, reaching the presidency in Concepción at that time.

Later, he was part of the Central Radical Board, as a representative of the Arauco Province. He was the prototype of the Chilean lay and educated upper middle class and a candidate for the Masonic lodge of Concepción, where he knocked on doors and was admitted in 1914.

Ríos Morales was named councilor and later elected mayor of Concepción. In 1920, he participated in the electoral campaign for the presidential elections achieving a prominent role as leader of the Radical Party. A year later he ran for deputy, but was not elected.

During the administration of President Arturo Alessandri Palma, Ríos Morales was appointed Charge d'Affaires and Consul General of Chile in Panama. He was in this position until 1923 and returned to the country in 1924 to run for deputy again. This time he was elected.

Expulsion of the Radical Party

In 1925 he was part of the Advisory Commission in charge of proposing the constitutional reform. After the fall (resignation) in 1931 of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, his collaboration with that Government was questioned within the Radical Party, to the point that he was expelled from that political organization.

That year, Juan Esteban Montero, of the Radical Party, was elected president of the Republic, over whose government he exercised stubborn opposition from the Chamber of Deputies. In 1932 he actively participated in the coup led by the left against President Montero.

Between June and September of that same year, Ríos Morales was appointed Minister of the Interior by the Fourth Governing Board of the so-called Socialist Republic, being ratified by the provisional presidency of Carlos Dávila Espinoza during that same period.

Then between September and October 1932, he was appointed Minister of Justice, during the government of provisional president Bartolomé Blanche Espejo. At the end of 1933, after Arturo Alessandri Palma was again elected president, he briefly distanced himself from political activity.

Return to the Radical Party and Presidential Candidacy

In 1933 after being elected again as a deputy in the legislative elections, he returned to the ranks of the Radical Party. Three years later he was one of those responsible for the formation of the Popular Front alliance.

During the Convention of the Left Parties in 1936, he was appointed presidential candidate. But he had to decline in favor of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, who won the elections held in December 1938. During the Aguirre Cerda government, he was president of the Caja de Crédito Hipotecario.

When President Aguirre Cerda died suddenly in November 1941, presidential elections were called in 1942. Then Ríos Morales was elected presidential candidate.

At that time he had the support of the Radical, Democratic, Socialist, Agrarian, Communist, Falangist, Socialist Workers' parties and a sector of liberalism.

Sickness and death

Afflicted with serious health ailments, in 1944 President Ríos Morales underwent a surgical operation and advanced cancer was detected. However, the real diagnosis was not revealed to him, so after a brief recovery he continued with his government activities.

Shortly after returning from a trip to the United States, he had to stay in bed for several days in Panama. It was said that it was due to a severe flu condition.

On November 27 of that year he resumed his functions, but on September 26, 1945, after a new crisis, he had to leave the vice president, Alfredo Duhalde, in charge.

On January 17, 1946, he resigned from the presidency due to his illness, and Alfredo Duhalde was finally in charge. After the presidential elections, Ríos Morales was succeeded by his colleague from the Radical Party, Gabriel González Videla.

Juan Antonio Ríos Morales died on June 27, 1946 at the age of 58.

Presidency (characteristics)

- It was a government marked by political pugnacity within its own Radical Party with which it faced as a result of the demands to change the cabinet. But also in the partisan and legislative political sphere, between radicals and liberals.

- Under the slogan “to govern is to produce”, it continued to promote the industrialization and modernization plans of Chile sponsored by Aguirre Cerda.

- A strong boost was offered to the national oil industry with the discovery of the Springhill and Manantiales fields.

- It was a developmental government, which fostered the development of Chilean industry and promoted the installation of the first factories in the country.

- He sought the approval of a constitutional reform to reduce the influence of Congress in the generation of expenses.

- At the educational level, rural education was promoted through the construction of various houses for poor children, schools and new enclosures for public assistance.

- An austerity policy was attempted in view of the economic situation that the country went through in that period, reducing public spending.

- This in the labor field, led him to confront the union organizations that demanded greater salary increases.

- It had to overcome many problems due to the neutral position of Chile before the powers faced during World War II. Due to pressure from the allied countries, it broke relations with Germany, Japan and Italy.

Plays

- Creation of the National Electricity Company (Endesa) and the National Electrification Plan.

- Start of construction of the Pilmaiquén and Abanico hydroelectric plants.

- Creation of the Compañía de Aceros del Pacifico and the Siderurgica de Huachipato.

- Institutionalization of the National Prize for Literature.

- Creation of the Ciudad del Niño.

- Carrying out the economic census and promoting rural education.

- Foundation of the Construction Society of Hospital Establishments as well as the General Directorate for the Protection of Children and Adolescents.

- Reorganization of Corvi and creation of the Labor Accident Fund in 1942.

- Construction of bridges in Huaquén and Pedro de Valdivia.

- Start of construction plans for the Santiago Metro.

- Layout of the Pan-American highway proposed by Minister Eduardo Frei Montalvo.

- Reconstruction of areas affected by the Chillán Earthquake (1939)

- Creation of the Cabo de Hornos National Park.

References

1. Biographical Review Juan Antonio Ríos Morales. Consulted of bcn.cl
2. 120 years after the birth of President Juan Antonio Rios Morales: Profile. Consulted of fingerprints.cl
3. Government of Juan Antonio Ríos (1942-1946). Consulted of icarito.cl
4. Juan Antonio Ríos. Consulted of memoriachilena.cl
5. Juan Antonio Ríos Morales. Consulted of ecured.cu
6. Juan Antonio Ríos. Consulted of es.wikipedia.org
7. Juan Antonio Ríos Morales. Consulted of uchile.cl