Ricardo Puelma

Ricardo Enrique Puelma Laval (10 July 1878 – 1935) was a Chilean physician, military officer and politician. A member of the Radical Party, he served briefly as a deputy and later as Minister of Social Welfare during the presidency of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.

In addition to his medical and political work, Puelma wrote and published several works of scientific and sociological character. He died in 1935.

Early life and education Puelma was born in Copiapó, Chile, on 10 July 1878. He studied at the Liceo of Copiapó and later medicine at the University of Chile. He graduated as a physician-surgeon on 29 December 1902 with a thesis titled Defensas e inmunidad de las enfermedades infecciosas.

He later undertook postgraduate studies in military health and obtained diplomas in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and particularly in France in 1919.

Public career After graduating he moved to Iquique, where he worked for three years as an intern physician at the Iquique Hospital between 1902 and 1905.

He was later appointed physician of the cavalry regiment Granaderos, serving from 1905 to 1923. During his military career he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel of medical services and retired while serving as chief physician and surgeon of the First Division.

For many years he also served as honorary chief physician of the Polyclinic for Socially Transmitted Diseases in Iquique. In 1919 he was commissioned abroad for a study mission related to public health.

Puelma was a member of the Radical Party. During the presidency of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, he was appointed Minister of Social Welfare, serving from 5 September 1930 to 13 July 1931.

He was elected deputy for the First Departamental Grouping of Pisagua and Tarapacá for the 1930–1934 legislative period and served on the Permanent Commissions on War and Navy and on Hygiene and Public Assistance.

Because he accepted the ministerial office, which was incompatible with the position of deputy, he was replaced in Congress by Serafín Elguín Morales on 9 December 1930.

The revolutionary movement that broke out on 4 June 1932 decreed the dissolution of Congress two days later.