Diego Portales

Coat of arms of the Portales family

Diego Portales was born in Santiago, the son of María Encarnación Fernández de Palazuelos y Martínez de Aldunate and José Santiago Portales y Larraín, a superintendent of the royal mint. He did his primary studies at the Colegio de Santiago, and in 1813, attended law classes at the National Institute. As the men of his family had all become successful merchants, Portales also eventually assumed the position of a merchant, taking part in his prosperous and distinguished family's occupation.[1]

On August 15, 1819 he married his cousin, Josefa Portales y Larraín. He had two daughters with her, both of whom died within days of their birth. His wife also died soon after in 1821. He never remarried, but took Constanza Nordenflicht as his mistress, with whom he had three children.

In July 1821, he resigned from his job at the Mint and went into business. He opened a trading house, Portales, Cea and Co., based in Valparaiso with a branch in Lima, Peru. He bid and obtained management of the government monopoly on tobacco, tea, and liquor (known in Spanish as estanco). In exchange for the monopoly, he offered to service in full Chile's foreign debt. Nonetheless, in the anarchy that was regnant in Chile at the time, there was no means of enforcing a monopoly as the government could not regulate sales of tobacco, tea, and liquor, and the company eventually went bankrupt. His contract with the government was voided and the Chilean government was found to owe Portales 87,000 pesos. Out of this unsuccessful business venture, the only remnant was the name eventually applied to his political followers, who in time came to be known as the estanqueros (monopolists.)

Soon after, he aligned with the conservatives in the political fights that were wracking Chile at the time. As aforementioned, in 1824, Portales’ business firm acquired control over the government's monopoly of tobacco, tea, and liquor; however, the country's troubled conditions soon thwarted his profitable business. For these reasons, Portales finally entered into the political sphere, and very soon he would become the intellectual leader of the conservative side. He helped to reorganize the conservative party, and, in 1827, founded El Hambriento (or The Starveling), a journal attacking liberal idealists known as the pipiolos (“white beaks”) from Portales' party's (a.k.a. the pelucones or "big wigs") perspective. Portales was an effective satirist, contributing several popular articles to The Starveling. Portales' articles placed him in the limelight and paved the way for his political career.[2][3]

Early print (1854)

After the triumph of the conservatives in the Revolution of 1829, President José Tomás Ovalle y Bezanilla named him Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs on April 6, 1830 remaining until May 1831. He was named again to that position by President Fernando Errázuriz Aldunate on July 9, 1831 and remained until August 31, 1831 and named once again by President José Joaquín Prieto from November 9, 1835 to January 1837. Something similar happened with his nomination as minister of war and navy from April 6, 1830 until May 1831; then from July 9, 1831 until December 1832 and from September 21, 1835 to September 1836.

Though Portales was never president officially (and in fact he deliberately avoided this position for fear of being tied up by factional promises), he became a dictator and with this powerful position, he quelled anarchy. Portales set up a civil militia (which ended one of the worst stages of militarism in Chile's history); supported an oligarchic control for landowners, miners, and merchants; and made Catholicism the state religion. As a result of his campaign for peace, order, and thus progress, business also improved.[4]

Statue of Minister Diego Portales in Viña del Mar

In order to bolster its standing, the Chilean government immediately imposed martial law and asked for (and obtained) extraordinary legislative powers from Congress. Early in 1837 a Court Martial Law was approved and given jurisdiction over all citizens for the duration of the war. The opposition to the Prieto Vial administration immediately accused Portales of tyranny, and started a heated press campaign against him personally and the unpopular war in general.

Political and public opposition to war immediately affected the army, fresh from the purges of the civil war of 1830. On June 3, 1837, Colonel José Antonio Vidaurre, commander of the Maipo regiment, captured and imprisoned Portales while he was reviewing troops at the army barracks in Quillota. Vidaurre immediately proceeded to attack Valparaíso on the mistaken belief that public opinion opposed to the war would support him and topple the government. Rear Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada, in charge of the defense, defeated him right outside the port at the Battle of Barón. Captain Santiago Florín, who was in charge of Portales, had him shot when he heard of the news, on June 6, 1837. Most of the conspirators were subsequently captured and executed.

This murder turned the tide of Chilean public opinion. The government derogated Martial law and the country rallied behind the government. The war became a holy cause, and Portales a martyr.

Statue of Portales at the Plaza de la Constitución in the Chilean presidential palace, Santiago

Posthumous (1854) portrait of the Founding Fathers of the Chilean Republic. From left to right: José Miguel Carrera, Bernardo O'Higgins, José de San Martín, and Diego Portales.

Portales' reign helped to pick up business and accelerate the growth of the economy. Those who particularly benefited from his conservative rule were the already rich. Additionally, Portales helped Chile maintain a good deal of stability relative to many of the other Latin American nations. This was accomplished by Portales' improvement and renewal of the administration of the State, his strategic vision of Chile as an independent sovereign nation, and his influence upon the Chilean Constitution of 1833, which is considered the most important milestone of Chilean institutionality during the 19th century. His ideals and principles served as a foundation towards the Chilean governments of the future. His work was especially influential during the years of political learning of the post-independence turmoil and during the governments of the Conservative Republic (1830–1861) and to a lesser degree the governments of the Liberal Republic (1861–1891).

...we are inspired in the Portalian spirit that has fused together the nation...

— Augusto Pinochet, October 11, 1973.[5]

The figure and legacy of Portales has been praised by some historians like Ramón Sotomayor Valdés and Alberto Edwards. Other historians, including Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, Sergio Villalobos and Gabriel Salazar, have a negative view of Portales.[6]

Portales' crypt in the Santiago Cathedral following his reburial

Portales' remains, missing since his assassination, were found in March 2005 in Santiago's Metropolitan Cathedral during renovation projects, and were identified after forensic examination.[7] On June 20, 2006, the remains were taken to the civic crypt of the Cathedral for a civic-religious re-burial ceremony attended by then-President Michelle Bachelet, along with several civil and military authorities.

• Collier, Simon. Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808-1833. (1967)
• Crow, John A. The Epic of Latin America. By John A. Crow. 4th ed. New York: University of California P, 1992.
• Kinsbrunner, Jay. Diego Portales: Interpretive Essays on the Man and Times (1967)
• Sater, William F. "Diego José Pedro Victor Portales Palazuelos" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 4, pp. 442–44. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
• Letters by Diego Portales

• Chilean Civil War of 1829–1830

• "Portales, Diego: A Chilean Biography." Charlene Richardson.
• "Diego Portales" Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Media related to Diego Portales at Wikimedia Commons
• Portales, Diego: A Chilean Biography (in Spanish)