Background
Juan Antonio Ríos Morales was born on 10 November 1888 in Cañete.
Juan Antonio Ríos Morales was born on 10 November 1888 in Cañete.
He received his law degree from the University of Chile in 1914.
Although active in the Radical party, he did not enter the Chamber of Deputies until 1924. During the dictatorship of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (1927-1931), Ríos headed that Radical faction which collaborated with the regime, serving as president of the party after 1927. Following the overthrow of Ibáñez, he was expelled from the party. However, he was shortly readmitted, and in 1936-1937 he was leader of the faction that favored entering the Popular Front. After the Radicals joined the Front, the party’s convention in May 1937 resolved to withdraw from the cabinet of President Arturo Alessandri Palma and chose Juan Antonio Rios as party president.
When the Popular Front named its candidate for the presidential election of 1938, however, it chose Pedro Aguirre Cerda, who had led the faction opposed to entering the Front. It was not until Aguirre Cerda’s death at the end of 1941 that Juan Antonio Rios was elected president with the support of his own party, the Socialists. Communists, and the Falange Nacional, as well as of a Liberal faction headed by ex-President Arturo Alessandri, who wanted to defeat Carlos Ibáñez, Rios' opponent.
President Juan Antonio Rios broke diplomatic relations with the Axis powers in World War II and finally declared war on them. His government energetically pushed economic development, most notably starting construction of the Hua- chipato steel mill. In the last months of 1945, President Rios became gravely ill, turning over the government to Vice President (Acting President) Alfredo Duhalde at the end of September. Although resuming the presidency for about a month and a half in December 1945-January 1946, he once again turned over power to Duhalde on January 17, 1946, and died a few months later.
