Edmundo Pérez Yoma - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Edmundo Jaime Pérez Yoma (born 10 January 1939 Antofagasta

Antofagasta

Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2002 census, the city has a population of 296,905...

) is a Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an politician from the Christian Democrat Party of Chile

Christian Democrat Party of Chile

The Christian Democratic Party is a political party in Chile and governs as part of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy coalition. In the 2009 election it won 19 congress seats and 9 senate seats....

. He was twice the Minister of Defense

Ministry of National Defense (Chile)

The Ministry of National Defense is the cabinet-level administrative office in charge of "maintaining the independence and sovereignty" of Chile. It is also charged with planning, directing, coordinating, executing, controlling and informing the defense policies formulated by the President of...

during the administration of President

President of Chile

The President of the Republic of Chile is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Chile. The President is responsible of the government and state administration...

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle

Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He is currently Senator for Los Ríos and was President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He attempted a comeback as the candidate of the ruling Concertación...

, and he served as the Minister of the Interior

Ministry of the Interior (Chile)

The Ministry of the Interior and Public Security is the cabinet-level administrative office in charge of "maintaining public order, security and social peace" within Chile. It is also charged with planning, directing, coordinating, executing, controlling, and informing the domestic policies...

for President Michelle Bachelet

Michelle Bachelet

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Social Democrat politician who was President of Chile from 11 March 2006 to 11 March 2010. She was the first woman president of her country...

's administration.

Pérez Yoma is the son of Edmundo Pérez Zujovic

Edmundo Pérez Zujovic

Edmundo Pérez Zujovic was a Chilean politician of the Christian Democrat Party. He was minister of the Interior, Public Works and Finance under the government of President Eduardo Frei Montalva ....

, the assassinated minister under President Eduardo Frei Montalva

Eduardo Frei Montalva

Eduardo Frei Montalva was a Chilean political leader of world stature. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970...

, father of President Frei Ruiz-Tagle. As a boy, he came to Santiago, the capital, with his family, enrolling in Saint George's College

Saint George's College

Saint George’s College, founded in 1936 and run by the Congregation of Holy Cross, is among the most exclusive and upper-class schools in Santiago, Chile...

and then the University of Chile, where for two years he studied engineering. Later, he moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1962. Pérez Yoma then returned to Chile, marrying Paz Vergara Larraín in 1965, with whom he has had six children.

In the following years, while working in business, Pérez Yoma was critical of Popular Unity

Popular Unity

Unidad Popular was a coalition of left wing, socialist and communist political parties in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election....

, the coalition of parties that brought the socialist Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....

to power in 1970. In 1988, he served as national advisor for the Christian Democrat Party

Christian Democrat Party of Chile

(PDC) and in 1989, he managed the senatorial campaign of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. In 1991, he was named president of the Defense Commission of his party. In the 1990s, he was president on the board of Petrox

Petrox

Petrox was a detergent additive used from 1954 to 1989 by Texaco, in its premium-grade "Sky Chief" gasoline. A new plant in Port Arthur, Texas was built to manufacture Petrox...

and Chilectra Metropolitana, oil and electicity companies, respectively. In 1993, he was executive secretary of Frei's presidential campaign.

Frei Ruiz-Tagle administration

Due to Pérez Yoma's closeness with the army, President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle

—a personal friend due to the closeness of their fathers—appointed him Minister of Defense

Ministry of National Defense (Chile)

in 1994. In this role, he had the task of managing relations with General Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

and preparing the transfer of command of the army from his hands. In contrast with his predecessor, Patricio Rojas Pérex Yoma maintained good personal and professional relations with Pinochet, coming to an agreement that his successor in command would be Ricardo Izurieta.

Another situation that Pérez Yoma faced was the removal from the direction of the Carabineros

Carabineros de Chile

thumb|250px|Carabineros de Chile, patrolling a street in [[Santiago, Chile|Santiago]]The Carabiniers of Chile, are the uniformed Chilean national police force and gendarmerie, created on April 27, 1927. Their mission is to maintain order and create public respect for the laws of the country...

of General Rodolfo Stange

Rodolfo Stange

General Rodolfo Stange Oelckers is a Chilean politician and former senator. He was a member of the Government Junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, representing the police force . He was elected Senator in 1998, finishing his term in 2005.Stange was born in Puerto Montt, in the south of Chile...

, who refused to resign after having been accused of dereliction of duty regarding the Caso Degollados.

Within the Frei administration, Pérez Yoma was in conflict with Minister of Public Works

Ministry of Public Works (Chile)

The Ministry of Public Works is the cabinet-level administrative office in charge of "planning, directing, controlling and building the public infrastructure, as well as the conservation and management of them" within Chile. It is also responsible for the "management, distribution, use and...

Ricardo Lagos

Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...

. Lagos refused to assent to the creation of Punta Peuca, a prison built specifically for the military convicts detained for violations of human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, whose first occupants were General Manuel Contreras

Manuel Contreras

Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda is a Chilean military officer and the former head of DINA, Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. As head of DINA he was the most powerful and feared man in the country, after Pinochet...

and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza for the murder of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier

Orlando Letelier

Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...

.

On January 16, 1998, Pérez Yoma left office to become the ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

to Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

On June 22, 1999, he returned to the administration as Minister of National Defense. In that stint, he created the Mesa de Diálogo (English: Bargaining Table), a body that sought to resolve problems concerning the violation of human rights during the military regime

Chile under Pinochet

Chile was ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 when Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat until 1990 when the Chilean transition to democracy began. The authoritarian military government was characterized by systematic suppression of political parties and...

Enlaces externos

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