Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón

Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón (March 2, 1905 in Panama City March 1, 1981) was the President of Panama in 1949 and from 1960 to 1964. He belonged to the Liberal Party.

Roberto Chiari
Roberto Chiari in 1962
President of Panama
In office
20 November 1949[1]  24 November 1949[1]
Preceded byDaniel Chanis
Succeeded byArnulfo Arias
In office
1 October 1960[1]  1 October 1964[1]
Vice PresidentSergio González Ruíz
José Dominador Bazán
Preceded byErnesto de la Guardia
Succeeded byMarco Aurelio Robles
Personal details
Born
Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón

(1905-03-02)2 March 1905
Panama City, Panama
Died1 March 1981(1981-03-01) (aged 75)
Panama City, Panama
Political partyNational Liberal Party
ProfessionPolitician

Before being president

He was president of the Chamber of Commerce. He worked in the sugar company of his family with his father Rodolfo Chiari and brothers. He was the only one of his brothers that was interested on politics. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1940. During the Ricardo de la Guardia administration he was Minister of Health and Public Works. He was one of Domingo Díaz Arosemena's vice presidents and briefly served as acting president in 1949. He lost the presidential elections of 1952. He was president of his Liberal Party for the next 8 years.

1960 election

He was elected in a clean and peaceful election. He was campaigning against former president Ricardo Arias and Victor Goytia.

Administration

His government worked hard on the education sector. The General Hospital of the Social Security was inaugurated and an extensive vaccination program was developed.

His administration is most remembered for the historic events of January 9, 1964, known today as Martyrs' Day. During a dispute between Panamanian and American students regarding the right to raise the Panamanian flag instead of the U.S. flag at Balboa High School the Panamanian flag was accidentally torn. This flag desecration sparked four days of fighting between civilians and the US Army. 22 Panamanians and four Americans died. Following these events, Chiari made the decision to break diplomatic relations with the United States, making Panama the first Latin American country to make this call. This spurred negotiations that ultimately ended in the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which disbanded the Canal Zone and relinquished U.S. control of the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999. Because of this, Chiari is known as el presidente de la dignidad (The President of Dignity).[1]

Post-presidency

After leaving office, he retired from public life and he returned to work in his private companies. He was president of the Industrial Sindicate from 1967 to 1969.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.