José Luis Martin Mardones

José Luis Martin Mardones (16 July 1921 – 17 February 2005) was a Chilean agronomist, farmer, and politician, member of the Agrarian Labor Party and later of the Christian Democratic Party.

Biography He was born in Santiago on 16 July 1921, the son of Luis Martin and María Elena Mardones. He married María Teresa Brahn Klein in San Carlos on 29 November 1984. He died on 17 February 2005.

He studied at the Seminary of Chillán, at Colegio San Ignacio between 1934 and 1935, and at the Bernardo O'Higgins Military Academy between 1938 and 1941, graduating with the rank of second lieutenant. After completing his secondary education, he entered the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he graduated as an agronomist in 1947. He later won a scholarship to pursue advanced studies at the Ramón Santa Marina School of Milk Industrialization in Tandil, Argentina, and further specialization at the University of Buenos Aires.

Political career He began his political career by joining the Agrarian Labor Party in 1942. In 1952 he was a leader in the presidential campaign of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. The following year, he was elected deputy of the PAL in the 1953 parliamentary elections for the 16th Departmental Grouping of Chillán, Bulnes, and Yungay. He served on the Permanent Commissions of Internal Government; National Defense; Roads and Public Works; Internal Police and Regulations; and Agriculture and Colonization. He was councilor of the Agricultural Colonization Fund between 1953 and 1954, and councilor of the Pension and Social Security Fund for Municipal Employees of the Republic in 1955.

In 1957 he held the position of councilor of the Pension and Survivors Fund of the Armed Forces of National Defense. That same year he was re-elected deputy for his same Departmental Grouping, serving on the Permanent Commissions of Roads and Public Works; Internal Police and Regulations; Agriculture and Colonization; Physical Education and Sports; and National Defense. Between 1958 and 1959 he was a member of the Parliamentary Committee of his new party, the National Popular Party.

In 1961 he joined the Christian Democratic Party and was re-elected deputy for the same constituency in the 1961 parliamentary elections. He continued to serve on the Permanent Commissions of Internal Government; Roads and Public Works; Internal Police and Regulations; and Agriculture and Colonization. He also joined the Special Commission on Wine in 1963, the Special Commission on Education in 1964, and the Special Investigative Commission on the Wine Industry between 1962 and 1963. He was also a member of the Joint Commission created to resolve difficulties in the processing of the bill that amended Law No. 7,758, which established the College of Agronomist Engineers.

In the 1965 parliamentary elections, he was re-elected deputy for the same constituency. He was part of the Permanent Commissions of National Defense, and of Labor and Social Security. He was not re-elected in the 1969 elections. In the 1971 municipal elections he was elected councilman (regidor) for Chillán.

In the 1973 parliamentary elections, he was elected deputy for the 16th Departmental Grouping of Chillán, Bulnes, and Yungay. He joined the Permanent Commission on Public Works and Transportation. However, his work as a parliamentarian was cut short due to the coup d’état and the subsequent dissolution of the National Congress in September 1973.