Background
José Manuel Balmaceda was born on 19 July, 1840 in Hacienda Bucalemu, Chile.
José Manuel Balmaceda was born on 19 July, 1840 in Hacienda Bucalemu, Chile.
Balmaceda, a member of the National Party, got his first political experience in the early 1860s as private secretary of ex-President Manuel Montt Torres. In 1864 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies where he served until elected to the presidency. In 1878 President Anibal Pinto Garmendia sent Balmaceda as minister to Argentina, where he persuaded the Argentine government to remain neutral in the War of the Pacific between Chile on the one hand and Bolivia and Peru on the other. Under President Domingo Santa Maria Gonzalez he served as minister of foreign relations, minister of justice, and minister of the interior.
In 1886 Balmaceda was elected president by a coalition of the National Party, the Liberal Party, and a faction of the Radicals.
The president came into growing conflict with Congress. This was the culmination of a quarter-century process in which Congress had been augmenting its powers at the expense of the chief executive. Balmaceda was an advocate of a strong presidency. In addition, he sought to limit the economic and political influence of British interests in the northern nitrate fields, while there was strong opposition in Congress to any limitation of the British role.
By October 1889 a coalition had been formed against Balmaceda in and out of Congress, consisting of his own National Party, the Radical Party, and two Liberal factions. At the end of 1890 opposition forces in Congress sought to pressure Balmaceda by refusing to pass the budget or the annual authorization required in order to maintain a standing army. So, on January 1, 1891, Balmaceda announced that he would continue operating the government on the same budget as that of 1890. On the same day, a majority in Congress declared the president “deposed.”
The rebel congressmen went to Valparaiso where most ot the navy, commanded by Captain Jorge Montt Alvarez, supported them. Proceeding to Iqui- que, they established a rebel government junta of three persons. The army remained loyal to the president and Civil War ensued, until the end of August when the rebels won the decisive Battle of Placilla. On August 28 Balmaceda received asylum in the Argentine legation, and remained in the legation until September 19, the day his constitutional term ended, and then committed suicide.