Jorge Arrate
Jorge Felix Arrate MacNiven ( born May 1, 1941 in Santiago de Chile) is a Chilean politician. He is the leader of the United Left in Chile and was a candidate of the Communist Party of Chile for the presidential election of 2009. Between 1992 and 1999 he served as a minister under President Patricio Aylwin and Eduardo Frei Ruiz - Tagle. He was initially educational, later minister of labor, and finally from 1998 to 1999 government spokesman with the rank of minister.
Life and work
Arrate began in 1958 at the Universidad de Chile a degree in economics and graduated in 1964. Following this, he could get a scholarship to Harvard University. This He finished his studies with an MBA. He began a dissertation for a Ph.D. at the University of Chile, but which he did not finish. After the coup in Chile in 1973 and the takeover of Augusto Pinochet Arrate fled the country. During this time Arrate was chairman of the committee of Exilchilenen. He lived in exile until 1987 in East Berlin, Rome and Rotterdam. Arrate considered as a critic of the economic policies of Augusto Pinochet. In particular, the ideas and concepts of the Chicago Boys and Miguel Kast he criticized as socially unbalanced.
After his time in government he held from 2000 to 2003, the Office of the Chilean ambassador to Argentina from. In 2007, he announced that the time of the Concertación party alliance would draw to a close; In 2009 he resigned from the Communist Party. He entered as a candidate of the extra-parliamentary left-wing coalition Juntos Podemos Mas on in the presidential election of 2009. In his demands, he followed the models of the left governments of Latin America: He pushed for a re-establishment of the Chilean state, which would make a new constitution needed. He also demanded a full nationalization of copper, Chile's main export. By banning outsourcing to intermediary companies, he wanted to strengthen the rule of the working class. Like its competitors, Eduardo Frei Ruiz- Tagle and Marco Enríquez - Ominami he acknowledged the issues of education and health a priority, remained in his demands, however vague. As the only of the four presidential candidates, he spoke out strongly in favor demilitarization of southern Chile.
Arrate, who was regarded as underdogs, scored on the first ballot, only 6.21 percent of the vote and thus ended up in fourth place. The two remaining candidates Eduardo Frei and Piñera then vied for his followers. Arrate itself tended to be rather free, but wanted him not issue a " blank check " and was open to talks with him.