Fernando Aldunate Errázuriz

Fernando Aldunate Errázuriz (29 October 1895 – 14 April 1990) was a Chilean lawyer, conservative politician and diplomat. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Chile, and later as ambassador of Chile to Argentina and to the Holy See.

Biography He was born in Santiago on 29 October 1895, the son of former parliamentarian Carlos Aldunate Solar and Pelagia Errázuriz Echaurren. He was the brother of politician Carlos Aldunate Errázuriz.

He completed his primary and secondary education at the National Institute and studied law at the University of Chile, graduating as a lawyer in 1917 with a thesis entitled Legislación Carbonífera, approved with distinction.

Professional career While still a university student, he worked as a journalist for the newspaper La Nación until 1919.

He specialized in mining litigation and served as legal counsel to the Schwager Coal Company. He was also an academic, teaching law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and at the University of Chile. Between 1930 and 1932 he was a member of the commission responsible for drafting the Chilean Mining Code.

In the field of education, he served as a councilor of the School of Social Work.

Political career A member of the Conservative Party, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1937 parliamentary elections for the 17th Departmental Grouping, comprising Talcahuano, Tomé, Concepción and Yumbel, serving the 1937–1941 term. He was re-elected deputy for the same constituency for the 1941–1945 term.

In the 1945 parliamentary elections he was elected senator for the 7th Provincial Grouping, comprising the provinces of Ñuble, Concepción and Arauco, serving the 1945–1953 term.

During his parliamentary career he served on numerous standing and mixed committees, including Finance; Constitution, Legislation and Justice; Labor and Social Welfare; Public Education; Mining; Foreign Relations; National Defense; and several joint budgetary and special legislative committees.

Among the legislative initiatives he sponsored that later became law were statutes concerning taxation of private pension funds, relief measures following the 1939 earthquake, road paving works, mining regulation, gold production policy, copper pricing mechanisms, and municipal governance.

Diplomatic career In 1956, during the second administration of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, he was appointed ambassador of Chile to Argentina, serving until 1957. Later, under President Jorge Alessandri, he was appointed ambassador of Chile to the Holy See, a position he held from 1959 to 1963.

Other activities He served as general director of the Bank of Credit and Investments (BCI) and held leadership positions in several mining companies. He was a board member of El Diario Ilustrado and served as president of Viña Concha y Toro.

He was also president of the Catholic Migration Institute, a counselor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Knight of Honor and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and a member of the Club de La Unión and the Santiago Jockey Club.

He died in Valparaíso on 14 April 1990.