Background
Ramón Barros Luco was born in Santiago de Chile on 9 June 1835.
government official politician
Ramón Barros Luco was born in Santiago de Chile on 9 June 1835.
He graduated as a lawyer in December 1858.
He was first elected deputy in 1861 and except for one three-year period remained in the Chamber of Deputies until the Revolution of 1891. President of the Chamber in 1879, 1888, 1889, 1891 and 1892, he also served in several cabinet posts under Presidents Domingo Santa María González and José Manuel Balmeceda Fernández.
He was a member of the three-man government junta established by the rebels in Iquique.
Barros Luco was elected to the Senate and in 1896 was chosen its president. He remained a senator (except for a short period as minister to France) until 1906. He also served as a member of the Council of State and on four occasions as minister of the interior (effectively, prime minister).
In 1910 Ramón Barros Luco, already 76 years old, was chosen president under very peculiar circumstances. When a deadlock in the popular vote threw the election into Congress, it rejected both contestants and named Barros Luco instead.
Throughout Barros Luco’s five-year term, congressional maneuvering almost brought governmental stagnation. As one Chilean writer has observed, “The parade of cabinets continued without ceasing.” Some lasted only a few days, one lucky one being of seven months’ duration. Very few constructive accomplishments could be credited to the administration of President Barros Luco.