page_title: Radical Governments of Chile
section_title: González Videla (1946-1952)
hierarchical_section_title: Radical Governments of Chile / González Videla (1946-1952)
caption_attribution_description: Español: Pablo Neruda durante su sesión de grabación en la Biblioteca de Congreso el 20 de junio de 1966, localizada en Library of Congress English: Pablo Neruda during a Library of Congress recording session, 20 June 1966
context_page_description: The Radical Governments of Chile were in power during the Presidential Republic from 1938 to 1952.
  The Radical Party's ideology found its roots in the principles of the 1789 French Revolution, upholding the values of liberty, equality, solidarity, participation and well-being. It had been created in the middle of the 19th century as a response to the conservative liberals then at power, and mainly represented the middle classes. It finally succeeded in being in power due to the Popular Front left-wing coalition, although its cabinets were fragilized by constant parliamentary instability.
context_section_description: For the second times in five years, a presidential election was held on September 4, 1946, opposing the Radical candidate Gabriel González Videla to the physician Eduardo Cruz-Coke as representative of the Conservative Party, Bernardo Ibáñez for the Socialist Party and Fernando Alessandri Rodríguez for the Liberal Party. The Radicals, who had chosen as candidate a member of its left-wing, did not succeed in reviving the Democratic Alliance left-wings' coalition, as the Socialist Party decided to go alone for the elections. However, the Radicals did ally themselves with the Communists, the poet and Communist senator Pablo Neruda leading González's electoral campaign.
  González was elected with 40% of the votes against 29% for the conservative candidate, Cruz Coke, and 27% for the liberal candidate Alessandri Rodríguez. Since González did not reach the necessary 50%, he had to be confirmed by Congress. He was duly confirmed on October 24 that year, following various negotiations between the parties, which led to the creation of a composite cabinet, including liberals, radicals and communists.
  Once in the presidency, González had a fallout with the communists. Following the municipal elections, during which the Communist Party highly increased its representation, the PCC demanded more cabinet seats, which González refused to grant. On the other hand, afraid of the successes of the PCC, the Liberal Party withdrew from the cabinet. In June 1947, incidents during a strike affecting the public transports in Santiago led to several casualties and the proclamation of a state of siege in the capital. In August and October 1947, various strikes struck the carbon mines in the South, jeopardizing the government. Finally, President González's travel to the region succeeded in bringing back tranquility. A few days afterwards, the miners of Chuquicamata initiated another strike, prompting González to make increasing use of emergency laws.
  Finally, under the pressure of the United States, González enacted a Law of Permanent Defense of the Democracy (Ley de Defensa Permanente de la Democracia, aka known as Cursed Law, Ley Maldita) which outlawed the Communist Party and banned more than 20,000 persons from the electoral lists. The detention center in Pisagua, used during Ibañez's dictatorship (and which would also be used during Pinochet's dictatorship), was re-opened to imprison Communists, Anarchists and revolutionaries, although no detainee was executed this time. Prominent Communists, such as the senator Pablo Neruda, fled into exile. He also broke relations with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact states. A pro-communist miners' strike in Lota was brutally suppressed. Demonstrations against what the communists called la ley maldita ("the damned law") led to the declaration of martial law, but were successfully repressed.
  González's new supporters, which approved of his anti-communist stance, were the two right-wing parties, the conservatives and the liberals. He constructed a new cabinet made up of conservatives, liberals, radicals, some socialists, and members of the small Democratic Party.
  González's tough stance against social movements led to protest demonstrations, allegedly in an intent to repeat the events of the Bogotazo in Colombia. However, these were quickly repressed, while González's government also had to confront itself, on the right-wing, to an attempted military coup which aimed at bringing back to power Carlos Ibáñez, the Pig trotters' conspiracy (complot de las patitas de chancho), thus named because the coup leaders met in a restaurant which specialized on this Chilean dish. He immediately ordered an investigation and the arrest of the coup leaders, including the head of the operation, General Ramón Vergara. Ibáñez, however, was absolved of all responsibility.
  In the parliamentary elections of 1949, the pro-government parties triumphed. However, the unity between right-wing parties and radicals and socialists did not last long. Radicals were unhappy with the economic policies of the right-wing Finance Minister, Jorge A
caption: Then senator Pablo Neruda.
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