Frei Montalva, Eduardo

Born Jan. 16, 1911, in Santiago. Chilean statesman and political figure.

Frei Montalva completed law studies in 1933 at the Catholic University of Chile, where he later taught. During the 1930’s he was a Catholic youth leader; in 1935 he founded the National Falange party. From 1937 to 1945, Frei Montalva was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, from May 1945 to January 1946 he served as minister of roads and public works, and from 1949 to 1964 he was a senator. He led the Christian Democratic Party, which was formed in 1957 from the National Falange and the Social Christian Conservatives. He was president of Chile from 1964 to 1970.

In November 1964 the Frei Montalva government resumed diplomatic relations (broken off in 1947) with the USSR. When Popular Unity, headed by S. Allende, came to power in November 1970, Frei Montalva actively opposed the party. After the coup d’etat of 1973 and the beginning of persecution of the Christian Democratic Party by the military junta, Frei Montalva joined the opposition to the fascist military regime.