Luis Izquierdo Fredes

Luis Izquierdo Fredes (13 August 1864 – 6 September 1949) was a Chilean politician who served as a minister.

A member of the Liberal Party, Izquierdo was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Lebu, Cañete and Arauco in 1906 and was reelected in 1909. In 1912, he was elected deputy for Santiago. During his parliamentary career, he served on the Foreign Affairs and Colonization Committee.

Izquierdo held several cabinet positions. In 1910, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and, following the death of President Pedro Montt, was appointed Minister of the Interior by Vice President Elías Fernández Albano. After Fernández Albano's death, Emiliano Figueroa assumed the vice presidency, while Izquierdo remained in the cabinet and continued as foreign minister until Ramón Barros Luco took office.

Biography

Izquierdo was the son of Gabriel Izquierdo Escudero and Clotilde Fredes Ortiz. He studied at the Instituto Nacional. During the War of the Pacific, he served as a naval cadet and received a military decoration.

During the Chilean Civil War of 1891, Izquierdo joined the Congressional forces with the rank of major. Following the victory of the Congressional side, the government of Jorge Montt appointed him secretary of the Chilean legation in London. In 1895, he became undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Public Works and was appointed a consul in 1899.

He again served as Minister of the Interior under presidents Juan Luis Sanfuentes and Arturo Alessandri. During Alessandri's administration, he was also involved in negotiations concerning the Tacna–Arica dispute, attended a financial conference in Washington, D.C., and served as Chilean minister plenipotentiary to Argentina.

In 1931, Vice President Manuel Trucco Franzani appointed Izquierdo Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commerce. Under President Juan Esteban Montero, he subsequently served as Minister of Finance during the economic crisis associated with the Great Depression in Chile. His tenure included measures concerning foreign exchange controls, state credit institutions and the Central Bank of Chile, as well as reductions in government expenditure. He left office following the overthrow of Montero's government in June 1932 and subsequently retired from political life.

Izquierdo married Isabel de la Fuente Morel, with whom he had two children. He died in Santiago on 6 September 1949, aged 85.