Rafael Sotomayor Gaete
Rafael Sotomayor | |
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File:RafaelSotomayorGaete.jpg | |
Born | Cauquenes, Chile |
November 16, 1848
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Santiago, Chile |
Rafael Segundo Sotomayor Gaete (November 16, 1848 – February 16, 1918) was a Chilean politician and several times minister.
He was born in Cauquenes, the son of Rafael Sotomayor Baeza and of Pabla del Carmen Gaete Ruiz. He studied at the Instituto Nacional and later graduated as a lawyer from the Universidad de Chile on January 7, 1871. During the War of the Pacific, he accompanied his father, who was the Minister of War, as personal secretary and auditor, and after his death, in 1880, he became CO of the Customs House Guard in Iquique and later Intendant of Tarapacá. On May 4, 1895, he married Inés Neuhaus Ugarteche, and together they had 6 children.
He joined the Radical Party, and in 1898 President Federico Errázuriz Echaurren appointed him Minister of Finance (1898–1899) first and Minister of the Interior later (1899). President German Riesco appointed him Minister of the Interior (1903) and then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cult and Colonization (1903–1904). In 1906 Sotomayor was elected Senator for "Aconcagua" (1906–1912).
President Pedro Montt appointed him Minister of Finance (1906–1907) and then Minister of the Interior (1907–1908). As such he is held responsible of giving the shoot-to-kill order to General Roberto Silva Renard that caused the Santa María School massacre in 1907, where the estimates range between 1,100 and 3,500 men, women and children killed. His reputation never recovered.
Sotomayor died of Spanish flu on board the ship Infanta Isabel, in front of Pernambuco, at the age of 69, on the return trip from Europe, after having been Chilean Ambassador to France.
External links
- Genealogical chart (Spanish)
- Genealogical chart of Sotomayor family (Spanish)
Government offices | ||
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Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1899 |
Succeeded by Elías Fernández |
Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1903 |
Succeeded by Ricardo Matte |
Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cult and Colonization 1903-1904 |
Succeeded by Emilio Bello |
Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1904 |
Succeeded by Emilio Bello |
Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1907-1908 |
Succeeded by Javier Angel Figueroa |
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with Spanish-language external links
- 1848 births
- 1918 deaths
- People from Cauquenes
- Chilean people of Galician descent
- Radical Party (Chile) politicians
- Chilean Ministers of the Interior
- Foreign ministers of Chile
- Chilean Ministers of Finance
- Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile
- Members of the Senate of Chile
- Ambassadors of Chile to France
- Instituto Nacional alumni
- University of Chile alumni
- Deaths from the 1918 flu pandemic