Diego Portales - Political Career

Political Career

Soon after, he aligned with the conservatives in the political fights that were wracking Chile at the time. As aforementioned, in 1824, Portales’ business firm acquired control over the government’s monopoly of tobacco, tea, and liquor; however, the country's troubled conditions soon thwarted his profitable business. For these reasons, Portales finally entered into the political sphere, and very soon he would become the intellectual leader of the conservative side. He helped to reorganize the conservative party, and, in 1827, founded El Hambriento (or The Starveling), a journal attacking liberal idealists known as the pipiolos (“white beaks”) from Portales’ party’s (a.k.a. the pelucones or “old wigs”) perspective. Portales was an effective satirist, contributing several popular articles to The Starveling. Portales' articles placed him in the limelight and paved the way for his political career.

After the triumph of the conservatives in the Revolution of 1829, President José Tomás Ovalle named him Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs on April 6, 1830 remaining until May 1831. He was named again to that position by President Fernando Errázuriz on July 9, 1831 and remained until August 31, 1831 and named once again by President José Joaquín Prieto from November 9, 1835 to January 1837. Something similar happened with his nomination as minister of war and navy from April 6, 1830 until May 1831; then from July 9, 1831 until December 1832 and from September 21, 1835 to September 1836.

Though Portales was never president officially (and in fact avoided this position for fear of being tied up by factional promises), he became a dictator and with this powerful position, he quelled anarchy. Portales set up a civil militia (which ended one of the worst stages of militarism in Chile's history); supported an oligarchic control for landowners, miners, and merchants; and made Catholicism the state religion. As a result of his campaign for peace, order, and thus progress, business also improved.