Santos Medel

Santos Leoncio Medel Basualto (10 November 1904 – 1 May 1967) was a Chilean miner, trade union leader, and communist politician. He served as mayor and regidor of Lota, and later as Deputy of the Republic between 1961 and 1965.

Biography He was born in Lebu on 10 November 1904, the youngest of eleven siblings. In 1940 he married Eva Espinoza; they had a son, Andrés, and a daughter, Fresia, who died shortly after birth.

He only attended one year of school in Lebu and learned to read and write with teachers from the Communist Party. At the age of 5 he entered the coal mine "Junquillo" of Lebu with one of his older brothers. By the age of 8 he was already working as a “arrenquín,” leading the horses that pulled coal carts. He also worked in the Esperanza and Fortuna mines as a water boy and rope-puller, and later for more than 18 years in Lota, Curanilahue, Schwager, Cosmito and Coronel. He was dismissed in 1931 for his opposition to the government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.

He joined the Communist Party of Chile in 1927. In 1920 he met Luis Emilio Recabarren, who inspired him to dedicate his life to social struggle. He became a leader of the Federación Obrera de Chile, member of the Federación Minera de Chile, the Central Única de Trabajadores, and the Sindicato Victoria of Lebu. He served on the Central Committee of the Communist Party for more than 30 years.

Medel was frequently arrested and persecuted. In 1932, at the Communist Party Congress in Lo Ovalle, he was imprisoned and joined a hunger strike along with other leaders. During the repression under President Gabriel González Videla in 1947, he had to hide and travel clandestinely from Lota to Santiago.

He was regidor of Lota (1935–1947; 1952–1955) and mayor of the same city (1938–1942). In the 1961 Chilean parliamentary election, he was elected Deputy for the 18th Departmental Group (Lebu, Cañete and Arauco) for the 1961–1965 period, serving on the Committee on Agriculture and Colonization.

Throughout his life he fought to improve the conditions of workers, peasants, and the entire working class. A lung operation prevented him from running for reelection, and he emigrated to Arica.

He died in Santiago on 1 May 1967 of a heart attack, at the age of 62. At the time of his death he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.