Jorge Prat

Jorge Prat Echaurren (24 April 1918 – 20 December 1971) was a Chilean nationalist politician. Prat was a leading figure on the far right of Chilean politics for several decades, although he also served a brief spell as a cabinet minister in the 1950s.

Early years Prat was born in Santiago, Chile. He graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1941 with a law degree and initially practised as a lawyer. He subsequently entered banking and was appointed president of the Caja Nacional de Ahorros in 1952. Roman Catholicism and anti-Americanism were also central features of Estanquero thought. The group was associated with the far right Agrarian Labor Party, although Prat himself, unlike many others who were part of his group, never formally became a member of this group. His governmental career ended soon after this.

Prat then attempted to run for President of Chile in the 1964 election and to this end formed his own party, the National Action, with Sergio Onofre Jarpa in 1963. Prat's campaign did not prove a success however and he withdrew his candidacy before the election. His campaign had largely been run on an anti-Congress platform, calling for a much stronger Presidency and significant increases in military spending. His party fell apart soon after, with the bulk of its membership transferring allegiance to the newly established National Party in 1966.

Prat did not become involved in the National Party, and instead concentrated his efforts on largely failed attempts to build a united far-right, anti-democracy party. The most notable of these efforts was the Unión Cívica Democrática, a group he established with Arturo Olavarria and which became noted for its violent opposition to communism.

He died in Curacaví in 1971. His funeral was attended by several far right leaders, with Sergio Onofre Jarpa and National Party leader Mario Arnello amongst the mourners.