Edgardo Enríquez
Encyclopedia
Edgardo Enríquez Frödden (February 9, 1912 - November 1, 1996) was a Chilean physician, academic and minister of education under the Salvador Allende
government.
family that featured prominently in the political history of the city of Concepción
, Chile
. His sister, Inés Enríquez Frödden, (1913–1998) was a lawyer, a leader of the Chilean Radical Party
and the first woman elected into the chamber of deputies of the Chilean parliament. His brother, Humberto Enríquez Frödden, (1907–1989) was a law professor, Chilean senator and minister of health. His brother, Hugo Enríquez Frödden, a physician, held the position of director of the Juan Aguirre Hospital in Santiago and was a distinguished member of the World Health Organization
.
He entered the medical school of the University of Concepción in 1930 and graduated in 1936. As a student he received the A. de Ambrossy Prize from the University of Concepción and the Carlos Mockenberg Prize from the University of Chile – both awards were earned for academic excellence.
He married the lawyer Raquel Espinoza Townsend with whom he had four children: his youngest child Miguel Enríquez (1944–1974) followed him into the field of medicine and became the legendary revolutionary figure who founded the MIR
and headed the resistance
against the Pinochet dictatorship.
Enríquez Frödden served in the Naval Academy from 1938, first as a general practitioner, later he became the director of the Naval Hospital of Talcahuano
; ultimately reaching the rank of Captain of the Naval Medical Services Corp. He was also a professor of anatomy and medicine in a number of schools and institutions and he chaired the first Latin American Studies Conference held in Concepción
in 1969.
, Salvador Allende
began to set up a new cabinet to appease his opponents in Congress who were systematically impairing his democratically elected socialist
government. Allende began to offer ministerial posts to members of the Christian democratic party
- a party that had traditionally represented the middle class
es in Chile. By 1973 the Christian democratic party
had started to shift to the right and openly show support for a military overthrow of the popular unity government. In this climate of open political provocation by his enemies in Congress Allende found it difficult to find someone with the credentials to accept the ministerial portfolio for education because the education reforms he had initiated encountered major obstacles. Allende had promised an overhaul in education in Chile, he massively increased expenditure for public education
and had implemented a university reform aimed to facilitate access to higher education
for the working class
and people from the shanty town
s. His reform had started to encounter powerful and staunch opposition from private educational institutions (which was backed by the Roman Catholic Church
hierarchy and employers' organisations) – where the Chilean elite normally enrolled their children to prevent them associating with lower or working class people.
It was within this political context that Enríquez Frödden accepted the post of minister of education offered to him by Allende - but his ministerial term was cut short by the U.S. backed military overthrow of the Salvador Allende
government on September 11, 1973.
government and the consequential death of President Salvador Allende, the new military junta declared members of his government enemies of the state. The military junta moved quickly to remove Allende’s ministers from the public scene with many imprisoned, exiled and some murdered. Enriquez Frödden was arrested, imprisoned and then relocated to the remote concentration camp set up in Dawson Island
. He was forced into exile
with his wife in 1976 and settled in Mexico were he remained for about 14 years.
Enriquez Frödden (with his wife Raquel) spent the rest of their lives campaigning for the disappeared
and denouncing the human rights abuses that were committed by the Pinochet regime. Two of his sons Miguel Enríquez, and Edgardo Enriquez along with his son in law Juan Bautista von Schouwen (all three leading members of the MIR
) were assassinated in the first period of the Pinochet dictatorship.
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....
government.
Family and careers
Enríquez Frödden was born into an upper middle classUpper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
family that featured prominently in the political history of the city of Concepción
Concepción, Chile
Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...
, 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...
. His sister, Inés Enríquez Frödden, (1913–1998) was a lawyer, a leader of the Chilean Radical Party
Radical Party (Chile)
The Radical Party of Chile was a Chilean political party. It was formed in 1863 by a split in the Liberal Party. Not coincidently, it was formed shortly after the organization of the Grand Lodge of Chile, and it has maintained a close relationship with Chilean Freemasonry throughout its life...
and the first woman elected into the chamber of deputies of the Chilean parliament. His brother, Humberto Enríquez Frödden, (1907–1989) was a law professor, Chilean senator and minister of health. His brother, Hugo Enríquez Frödden, a physician, held the position of director of the Juan Aguirre Hospital in Santiago and was a distinguished member of the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
.
He entered the medical school of the University of Concepción in 1930 and graduated in 1936. As a student he received the A. de Ambrossy Prize from the University of Concepción and the Carlos Mockenberg Prize from the University of Chile – both awards were earned for academic excellence.
He married the lawyer Raquel Espinoza Townsend with whom he had four children: his youngest child Miguel Enríquez (1944–1974) followed him into the field of medicine and became the legendary revolutionary figure who founded the MIR
Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)
Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean political party and former left-wing guerrilla organization founded on October 12, 1965...
and headed the resistance
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
against the Pinochet dictatorship.
Enríquez Frödden served in the Naval Academy from 1938, first as a general practitioner, later he became the director of the Naval Hospital of Talcahuano
Talcahuano
Talcahuano is a port city and commune in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepción conurbation. Talcahuano is located in the south of the Central Zone of Chile.-Geography:...
; ultimately reaching the rank of Captain of the Naval Medical Services Corp. He was also a professor of anatomy and medicine in a number of schools and institutions and he chaired the first Latin American Studies Conference held in Concepción
Concepción, Chile
Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...
in 1969.
Popular Unity
Just after the June 29, 1973 tanquetazoTanquetazo
El Tanquetazo or El Tancazo of 29 June 1973 are the names used to refer to the failed coup attempt in Chile led by Army Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Souper against the government of Socialist president Salvador Allende. It is called such because the rebelling officers primarily used tanks...
, 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....
began to set up a new cabinet to appease his opponents in Congress who were systematically impairing his democratically elected socialist
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
government. Allende began to offer ministerial posts to members of the Christian democratic party
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....
- a party that had traditionally represented the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
es in Chile. By 1973 the Christian democratic party
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....
had started to shift to the right and openly show support for a military overthrow of the popular unity government. In this climate of open political provocation by his enemies in Congress Allende found it difficult to find someone with the credentials to accept the ministerial portfolio for education because the education reforms he had initiated encountered major obstacles. Allende had promised an overhaul in education in Chile, he massively increased expenditure for public education
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
and had implemented a university reform aimed to facilitate access to higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
for the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and people from the shanty town
Shanty town
A shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...
s. His reform had started to encounter powerful and staunch opposition from private educational institutions (which was backed by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
hierarchy and employers' organisations) – where the Chilean elite normally enrolled their children to prevent them associating with lower or working class people.
It was within this political context that Enríquez Frödden accepted the post of minister of education offered to him by Allende - but his ministerial term was cut short by the U.S. backed military overthrow of the 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....
government on September 11, 1973.
Arrest and exile
After the military overthrow of the Popular UnityPopular 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....
government and the consequential death of President Salvador Allende, the new military junta declared members of his government enemies of the state. The military junta moved quickly to remove Allende’s ministers from the public scene with many imprisoned, exiled and some murdered. Enriquez Frödden was arrested, imprisoned and then relocated to the remote concentration camp set up in Dawson Island
Dawson Island
Dawson Island is an island in the Strait of Magellan that forms part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, 100 km south of the city of Punta Arenas in Chile, and part of the Municipality of Punta Arenas. It is located southeast of Brunswick Peninsula and is an approximately 1290 km² tract...
. He was forced into exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
with his wife in 1976 and settled in Mexico were he remained for about 14 years.
Enriquez Frödden (with his wife Raquel) spent the rest of their lives campaigning for the disappeared
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
and denouncing the human rights abuses that were committed by the Pinochet regime. Two of his sons Miguel Enríquez, and Edgardo Enriquez along with his son in law Juan Bautista von Schouwen (all three leading members of the MIR
Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)
Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean political party and former left-wing guerrilla organization founded on October 12, 1965...
) were assassinated in the first period of the Pinochet dictatorship.
…the old Chilean Army. Its members were like a family. We all knew and respected each other. It was with great pain that I witnessed such a radical and unfavourable change in it after September 1973. The army had been corrupted by officers and sub-officers who had completed courses in Internal War and National Security in the United States (WHISC)Western Hemisphere Institute for Security CooperationThe Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation , formerly the United States Army School of the Americas is a United States Department of Defense educational and training facility at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia in the United States...
. Most of the graduates of these courses returned to Chile transformed into Nazis. I never could have imagined a naval officer taking on the role of jailer and torturer. To my disgrace I not only bore witness to this but experience it first hand since I suffered both physical and psychological torture in their hands – such as being given water with faeces to drink in a concentration camp in Dawson IslandDawson IslandDawson Island is an island in the Strait of Magellan that forms part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, 100 km south of the city of Punta Arenas in Chile, and part of the Municipality of Punta Arenas. It is located southeast of Brunswick Peninsula and is an approximately 1290 km² tract...
, which was administered and directed by the Chilean Armed Forces.— Dr. Edgardo Enríquez Frödden (1994)
Positions held
- President of the Regional Council of Concepcion of Chile’s School of Medicine between 1949 to 1967.
- Director of the Naval Hospital of TalcahuanoTalcahuanoTalcahuano is a port city and commune in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepción conurbation. Talcahuano is located in the south of the Central Zone of Chile.-Geography:...
. (1963–1969) - Professor of Anatomy at the University of Concepción and the University of Chile (1936–1972)
- Rector of the University of Concepción. (1969–1972)
- Minister of Education (July 1973 – September 1973)
External links
- Remembering Allende and Popular Unity by Dan Morgan September 2008
- List of Ministers of the Popular Unity Government of Salvador Allende.