Mario Garrido Montt
Mario Enrique Astroberto Garrido Montt (29 March 1927 – 20 February 2011) was a Chilean lawyer, legal scholar and judge who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Chile from 1992 to 2004 and as president of the Supreme Court from 2002 to 2004.
A scholar of criminal law, he was also a professor at the University of Chile and served as rector of the Central University of Chile and Diego Portales University.
Education and academic career
Garrido studied law at the University of Chile, qualifying as a lawyer in 1953.
He later became a professor of criminal law at the University of Chile, where he also served as director of the Department of Criminal Sciences. From 1968 to 1979, he was a professor of law and secretary-general of the Universidad del Norte, now the Catholic University of the North. He also served as rector of the Central University of Chile and Diego Portales University.
In 2007, Garrido received the Juvenal Hernández Medal in recognition of his academic career at the University of Chile.
Garrido served as director of the Chilean Institute of Criminal Sciences and as director of the Chilean section of the International Association of Penal Law.
Judicial career
Garrido entered the judiciary on 8 February 1955 as a court secretary in Taltal. On 20 April of that year, he was appointed a judge in Andacollo. He subsequently served as a judge in Calbuco in 1956, Itata in 1957, Puente Alto in 1959, Rancagua in 1960, and Santiago in 1962.
In 1962, Garrido became a court reporter at the Court of Appeals of Santiago. He subsequently served as a justice of the courts of appeals of Iquique from 1964, Antofagasta from 1966, Pedro Aguirre Cerda from 1979, and Santiago from October 1979.
On 12 August 1992, President Patricio Aylwin appointed Garrido to the Supreme Court of Chile.
President of the Supreme Court
In 2001, Garrido was elected president of the Supreme Court with 13 votes. He took office on 7 January 2002. He served as president during 2002 and 2003 and was succeeded by Marcos Libedinsky in January 2004.
In 2002, Garrido received an award from the American Association of Jurists recognizing him as its judge of the year for 2001.
Personal life
After the death of his first wife, Garrido married Mónica Maldonado, a judicial prosecutor at the Supreme Court, on 20 December 2003.
Garrido died in Santiago on 20 February 2011 at the age of 83. Following his death, the Chilean government declared two days of official mourning, on 22 and 23 February, while the judiciary observed three days of mourning.