Luis Valente Rossi

Luis Valente Rossi (27 January 1922 – 25 May 1988) was a Chilean accountant, mathematics professor, and politician, member of the Communist Party of Chile. He served as deputy between 1961 and 1969, and as senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta between 1969 and 1973. He later went into exile in Italy following the coup d'état.^[1]

He was born in Tacna on 27 January 1922, the son of Luis Valente Cassasa and María Rossi, both of Italian descent. In 1937 he married Alicia Araya González.

He studied primary and secondary education in Arica, and later pursued higher studies at the Universidad Técnica del Estado, graduating as General Accountant and with a degree in Mathematics.

He was buried in the General Cemetery of Arica.^[2]

Valente Rossi joined the Communist Party of Chile in 1937, becoming secretary of the Communist Regional Committee of Valparaíso. He was also a union leader of the Stevedores’ Union in Tocopilla (1943). Later, he was elected councilor of the municipality of Arica (1945–1946).

In 1961 he became councilor of the Caja de Previsión de Carabineros de Chile, and was elected deputy for Arica, Iquique and Pisagua (1961–1965, reelected 1965–1969). During this period he was member of the permanent commissions of Government Interior, Mining, Agriculture and Colonization, and Labor and Social Welfare.

In 1969 he was elected senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta, serving until 1973. He integrated the permanent commissions of National Defense and Public Health.^[1]

His mandate was cut short by the coup d’état of 11 September 1973, which dissolved Congress through Decree Law No. 27.

Persecuted for his communist ideology, he went into exile in Italy in 1976, where he settled in Rome until his death in 1988.^[2]

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