Jorge Pizarro

Jorge Pizarro
Member of the Senate
In office
11 March 1998 – 11 March 2022
Preceded byRicardo Hormazábal
Succeeded byMatías Walker
ConstituencyCoquimbo Region
President of the Senate of Chile
In office
11 March 2010 – 15 March 2011
Preceded byJovino Novoa
Succeeded byGuido Guirardi Lavín
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
11 March 1990 – 11 March 1998
Preceded byDistrict created
Constituency8th District
Personal details
Born (1952-04-21) 21 April 1952
PartyChristian Democratic

Jorge Pizarro Soto (born 21 April 1952) is a Chilean politician who served as parliamentary from 1990 to 2022.[1][2]

Since March 1998 he has been a senator for Coquimbo and was the president of the senate from 2010 to 2011. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Party. He is also a member of the editorial committee of the Cambio 21 newspaper.[3]

In the professional field, he worked as a transport entrepreneur.[2]

Biography

He was born on 21 April 1952 in the city of Ovalle. He is the son of Luis Bernardo Pizarro Pizarro and Marta Soto García.[2]

He is married to Rocío del Pilar Peñafiel Salas and is the father of five children.[2]

He completed his secondary education at the Internado Nacional Barros Arana and pursued university studies at the School of Government and Public Management of the University of Chile, which he did not complete.[2]

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he became the second Chilean politician to be confirmed with COVID-19.[4]

Political career

He began his political career in 1971 as a student leader in the Federation of Students of the University of Chile (FECh), remaining active until 1973.[2]

On 19 June 1973, he was among those detained during a police raid on the headquarters of Canal 6 of the University of Chile, after the government declared the station’s broadcasts illegal. This episode later triggered a constitutional accusation and led to the dismissal of the Minister of the Interior, Gerardo Espinoza Carrillo.[2]

He later joined the Christian Democratic Party's youth wing (JDC), which he presided over between 1977 and 1979. Between 1982 and 1987, he served as Secretary-General of the World Union of Christian Democratic Youth, consolidating his early leadership within the party.[2]

In the 1989 parliamentary elections, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the 8th District –Coquimbo, Ovalle and Río Hurtado– for the 1990–1994 term, and was re-elected in 1993 for the 1994–1998 term. During this period, he served on standing committees related to foreign relations, economy and inter-parliamentary affairs.[2]

In 1997, he was elected Senator for Senatorial Circumscription No. 4 ―Coquimbo Region―, serving consecutive terms from 1998 to 2022. As senator, he presided over several key standing committees, including Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications, Economy, and Internal Regime, and played a prominent role in foreign affairs and budgetary oversight.[2]

At the international level, he held senior parliamentary positions, including Secretary-General and later President of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), and served as co-president of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat).[2]

He was elected President of the Senate of Chile for the 2010–2011 term and again between 2013 and 2014. On 29 March 2015, he was elected National President of the PDC, resigning from the position in April 2016. In June 2019, he was elected President of the Parlatino for the 2019–2021 term. On 17 March 2021, he was elected Vice President of the Senate alongside Senator Yasna Provoste, who assumed the presidency of the chamber.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Senado - República de Chile - Currículum Senador Jorge Pizarro Soto". Archived from the original on 2018-06-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Jorge Pizarro Soto". Library of the National Congress of Chile (in Spanish).
  3. ^ Cambio 21 (8 March 2011). "Exitoso lanzamiento del semanario Cambio21". Observatorio de Medios FUCATEL. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Senator Jorge Pizarro also tests positive for coronavirus". BioBio Chile. 16 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
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