Jorge Arrate

Jorge Félix Arrate Mac Niven (born May 1, 1941, in Santiago) is a Chilean lawyer, economist, writer and politician.

He later moved to Viña del Mar (1945–1953) and then to Puente Alto (until 1965).

He attended basic education in the Saint Paul School and the Mackay School of Viña del Mar.

He attended secondary studies at the Instituto Nacional of Santiago de Chile.

Jorge Arrate started his political career in 1957, serving secretary-general of the Federation of Secondary Students of Santiago.

He entered law school at the University of Chile in 1958 and graduated in 1964.

The following year he began postgraduate studies in Economic Development at the School of Latin American Economic Studies of the University of Chile.

In 1961 he was president of the Center of Students of the School of Law of the University of Chile and in 1963 he ran for the presidency of the Student Federation of Chile, with the support of the Communist and Socialist parties.

In 1963 he joined the Socialist Party of Chile and in early 1971 he was appointed by the Central Committee of the Socialist Party as leader of the Socialist Professionals and Technicians.

Arrate held teaching university functions since 1966, first at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile, then at the School of Sociology of the Catholic University and the Faculty of Economics of the University of Chile.

Between 1967 and 1969, he received a scholarship in the United States to pursue a PhD in Economics at Harvard.

He obtained the degree of Master of Arts in economics.

He returned home to the Institute of Economics of the University of Chile to wrote his doctoral thesis, which he never completed.

He has been Minister of State in the governments of Chilean presidents Salvador Allende (1970–1973), Patricio Aylwin (1990–1994), and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994–2000).

At the end of 1970 president Salvador Allende commissioned him for the purchase of the Zig-Zag Editorial Group and the management of the firm that replaced it, Quimantú Editors.

In 1970 he served as director of the Institute of Economy and Planning of the said university.

Later in 1971 he was designated as an economic advisor, and subsequently as chief executive officer of the Cuper Corporation (Codelco), where he was responsible for the nationalization of mineral deposits.

In June and July 1972 he served at the same time, on an interim basis, as Minister of Mining.

Between 1973 and 1987 he was exiled in Rome, Rotterdam and East Berlin.

During the first two years of his exile he was executive secretary of Chile Democratico, coordinator of anti-dictatorship activities in the country.

During his exile he was secretary of the Committee of Chileans Abroad.

He was married for the third time with writer Diamela Eltit.

He has two children from his first marriage with attorney Ana Maria Fernandez.

His second spouse was the psychologist Maria Soledad Larraín Heiremans.

In 1977, he founded the Institute for the New Chile-based in Rotterdam, with the former minister of Allende, Orlando Letelier.

Since 1987 he has been visiting professor at the National University of Cuyo (Argentina), the University of California, Berkeley twice, and the University of Virginia.

A long-time member of the Socialist Party of Chile arrate was during much of the 1990s the leader of the eponymous Arratismo faction in the party.

He directed the center, continuously subsidized by the Dutch government of different political orientation from its founding until 1991.

He also led the eight International Summer School in Rotterdam, Mendoza, Argentina and Santiago, organized by the institute.

After the restoration of democracy in Chile, he served as Minister of Education (1992–1994) in the government of Patricio Aylwin.

In 1992, Arrate was the first director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Santiago.

Later served as Minister of Labor and Social Forecast (1994–1998) and Minister Secretariat of Government (1998–1999) during the admnistración of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle.

During the indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet (1998–2000) Arrate was positive to the prospect of Pinochet being judged abroad.

Given that his was contrary to the government stance he was removed from his post as minister in June 1999.

Between 2000 and 2003, he served as ambassador in Argentina during the administration of Ricardo Lagos.

from 2003 to 2006, he chaired the ARCIS University Corporation (Chile).

In 2008 he was a professor at the University of Talca.

In 2009, he was appointed as candidate for president of Chile in representation of the political alliance Juntos Podemos Más and other leftist political movements, obtaining 6.21 percent of the total votes in the elections of that year.

He is the son of a former navy officer, and municipal employee Juan Gabriel Arrate Ducoing and Ines Mac-Niven Seymour.

He spent his early years in the Santiago neighborhood of Plaza Brasil.