Clodomiro Almeyda

José Clodomiro Almeyda Medina (February 11, 1923 – August 25, 1997) was a Chilean lawyer, professor and politician. A leading member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1970 to 1973 during the presidency of Salvador Allende.

Biography Early life Almeyda was born in Santiago. After studying at the German High School and Application High School of Santiago, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile. He graduated in 1948 with a thesis entitled Hacia una teoría marxista del Estado ("Towards a Marxist Theory of the State"). He later worked as a professor of political science at the Department of Sociology at the university.

Political career He joined the Socialist Party of Chile in 1941, and participated in the Popular Socialist Party during the internal rifts in the first part of the 1950s. During the second government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo he was Minister of Labor and Mining, standing out in his first ministry for being a promoter for the Workers' United Center of Chile (CUT). Almeyda resigned from his ministerial roles in 1953, due to conflicts between his party and Ibáñez del Campo. With the reunification of the Socialist Party in 1957, he rejoined the organization and was a member of the Chamber of Deputies between 1961 and 1965. From 1966, he served as director of the School of Sociology of the University of Chile. the article outlawed political parties and individuals that propagated leftist political ideology (ideologies that promoted a doctrine "founded on class struggle"). The Constitutional Court ordered the removal of Almeyda's civil and political rights for ten years, and he would only be rehabilitated as a citizen after the end of the military dictatorship and Chile's transition to democracy. In addition to his loss of rights, Almeyda was internally exiled to the town of Chile Chico in Patagonia. In this role, Almeyda tried to establish contacts with the Communist Party of Chile and other far-left parties, through formations such as Izquierda Unida and the short-lived Broad Party of Socialist Left. During the presidency of Patricio Aylwin he was in charge of reopening the Chilean embassy in Moscow in 1991, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union; he served as ambassador to the Soviet Union, and then Russia, until 1992. During his tenure, he gave refuge to former East German president Erich Honecker, who was wanted by the authorities of reunified Germany to be tried for murder for responsibility in the shooting of people trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Despite Chile's objections, Russian president Boris Yeltsin ordered Honecker's deportation to Berlin, in what turned into a serious diplomatic incident.

After returning to Chile, Almeyda devoted himself to private life, writing his memoirs and working as an academic at the Department of Sociology at the University of Chile. Following his death, the Chilean government announced three national days of mourning. He is buried in Santiago General Cemetery.

Honours and awards Foreign honours

Honorary degrees Honorary Degree from the University of Guadalajara, 24 October 1978 Honorary Degree from Wilhelm Pieck University, Rostock, 11 February 1983