Isidoro Errázuriz
Isidoro Errázuriz Errázuriz (21 April 1835 – 12 March 1898) was a Chilean lawyer, journalist, writer and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, as a senator for Chiloé Province, and as a minister of state.
During his political career, he held the portfolios of Justice and Public Instruction, Foreign Affairs, Industry and Public Works, and War and Navy. He also served as Chilean minister plenipotentiary to Brazil.
Early life
Errázuriz was born in Santiago on 21 April 1835, the son of Manuel Antonio Errázuriz Salas and María Rosa Errázuriz Mayo. He studied at the Instituto Nacional before traveling abroad, initially attending a Jesuit institution in Georgetown in the United States. In 1853, he entered the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he obtained a doctorate in law in 1856.
He returned to Chile in 1856 and became active in journalism and politics. He collaborated with Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna in La Asamblea Constituyente and was arrested and exiled to Mendoza in 1858. He later worked for La Voz de Chile and El Mercurio de Valparaíso, and in 1863 founded the Valparaíso newspaper La Patria, which he maintained until 1896.
Errázuriz married Virginia Hollmann in Germany in 1857. The couple had no children.
Political career
Initially associated with the Radical Party, Errázuriz later joined the Liberal Party. His parliamentary career began in the early 1870s, when he entered the Chamber of Deputies. He represented Cauquenes from 1873 to 1876, La Serena from 1876 to 1879, and Valparaíso for four consecutive terms between 1879 and 1891. During his years in Congress, he participated in committees dealing with government, foreign relations, education and public welfare.
During the War of the Pacific, Errázuriz represented the Chilean government at the battles of Chorrillos and Miraflores in 1881. During the occupation of Lima, he founded La Actualidad, a Chilean newspaper published in Peru. In 1887, he was appointed a colonization agent in Europe, a position he held until 1889.
President José Manuel Balmaceda appointed him Minister of Justice and Public Instruction on 23 October 1889, a position he held until January 1890. Errázuriz subsequently opposed Balmaceda during the Chilean Civil War of 1891. Following the establishment of the revolutionary government, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Worship and Public Instruction in August and September 1891 and subsequently assumed the Ministry of Industry and Public Works, remaining in office after Jorge Montt became head of the executive.
Under Montt, Errázuriz returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Worship and Colonization from June 1892 to April 1893. He then served as Minister of War and Navy until August 1893.
In parallel with his ministerial career, Errázuriz was elected senator for Chiloé Province in 1892, taking his seat on 10 October of that year after the seat of Miguel Castillo Andueza was declared vacant. He had also been elected deputy for Valparaíso and Casablanca for the 1891–1894 legislative period, but instead took his seat in the Senate.
In 1896, President Federico Errázuriz Echaurren appointed him Chilean minister plenipotentiary to Brazil. Errázuriz died of yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro on 12 March 1898 while serving in that post.