The Ariostazo (Spanish : El Ariostazo) occurred on August 25, 1939, and was a brief revolt of the Tacna artillery regiment, led by General Ariosto Herrera, in what turned out to be a non-violent attempt against the government of Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda.
Pedro Aguirre Cerda was elected and assumed as president on December 25, 1938, as the candidate of the Popular Front. He had narrowly defeated conservative candidate Gustavo Ross in the presidential elections of 1938. General Ariosto Herrera, the commander of the Army Division stationed in Santiago, was a supporter of former president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo and very much influenced by the fascist ideas he had absorbed while a military attaché in Italy during the 1930s. [1] He was also very much opposed to the Popular Front.
On May 21, 1939, as General Herrera was arriving to the Presidential Palace for a ceremony, he saw a red flag hanging from one of the balconies and in a sudden impulse grabbed it and tore it down. [2] The "flag incident" was picked up as an insult to the new government and a formal inquiry was instituted in order to remove him from his command. He was eventually forced into retirement, and immediately started to conspire to bring down the government. [3]
On August 25, 1939, General Herrera together with General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo arrived to the Tacna Regiment in Santiago, with the intention of insurrecting it and forcing the resignation of President Aguirre Cerda. [4] Nonetheless, the commander of said Regiment, Colonel Luco, had been previously notified of the intentions of the plotters and proceeded to arrest General Herrera as soon as he arrived and to prevent the entry to General Ibáñez. In view of the arrest of their leader, the rest of the military units involved decided to back down. [5] Due to these events 36 officers that were participants in the plot were subsequently purged from the army. [3]
Juan Antonio Ríos Morales was a Chilean political figure who served as president of Chile from 1942 to 1946, during the height of World War II. He died in office.
General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as President twice, first between 1927 and 1931, and then from 1952 to 1958, serving for 10 years in office.
Gabriel Enrique González Videla was a Chilean politician and lawyer who served as the 24th president of Chile from 1946 to 1952. He had previously been a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1930 to 1941 and senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta from 1945 to 1946. A long-time member and leader in the Radical Party, he left the party in 1971 over its support for socialist president Salvador Allende. From 1973 until his death in 1980 he became an active collaborator and participant in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, acting as vice president of the Council of State from 1976 onwards. As vice president of the council, he helped draft the current Chilean constitution of 1980.
Juan Esteban Montero Rodríguez was a Chilean political figure. He served twice as president of Chile between 1931 and 1932.
Pedro Abelino Aguirre Cerda was a Chilean political figure, educator, and lawyer who served as the 22nd president of Chile from 1938 until his death in 1941. A member of the Radical Party since 1906, he was chosen by the left-wing Popular Front coalition as its candidate for the 1938 presidential election and won. He had previously served as deputy for San Felipe, Putaendo and Los Andes from 1915 to 1918, Minister of the Interior from January to September 1918 under president Juan Luis Sanfuentes, deputy for Santiago from 1918 to 1921, Minister of Justice and Public Instruction from 1920 to 1921 under president Arturo Alessandri, and senator for Concepción from 1921 to 1927. He died two years and eleven months into his presidency on November 25, 1941, at the age of 62, from tuberculosis.
Presidential elections were held in Chile on 4 September 1952. The result was a victory for Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, who ran as an independent.
Presidential elections were held in Chile on February 1, 1942. The result was a victory for Juan Antonio Ríos of the Radical Party, who received 56% of the vote.
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The Popular Freedom Alliance was a Chilean political party during the Presidential Republic Era, founded in 1938 for the coming presidential election.
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The Popular Socialist Party was a Chilean left-wing political party that existed between 1948 and 1957. It was the result of the division of the Socialist Party of Chile in 1948 by voting and promulgation of Law No. 8,987 of Defense of Democracy in which the PS was divided in its vote and support among pro-communist and anti-communist.
The following lists events that happened during 1939 in Chile.
President Pedro Aguirre Cerda Station was a Chilean Antarctic base, located at Pendulum Cove in Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, inaugurated in 1955. The same year, the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition was established at Deception Island to help the survey of the Antarctic Peninsula, operating aircraft from Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd.
Rudecindo Ortega Mason was a Chilean politician who served as President of the United Nations General Assembly and Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations.
Conrado Ríos Gallardo was a Chilean journalist, diplomat and politician, member of the Liberal Party (PL). He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the first government of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, from 1927 to 1929. Likewise, he served as Chile's ambassador to the Republic of Peru between 1929 and 1931 ; and as Chile's ambassador to the Argentine Republic during the presidencies of the radicals Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Juan Antonio Ríos, and the second administration of Ibáñez del Campo, the latter position between 1953 and 1956.