Germán Riesco Zañartu

Germán Miguel Juan Riesco Zañartu (17 August 1941 – 9 November 2016) was a Chilean agricultural entrepreneur and politician.

He served as Deputy in the National Congress (1969–1973, 1973–1977) and later as Undersecretary of Agriculture during the Pinochet regime. He was also Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1990–1994).^[1]

He was the son of Ignacio Riesco Rivas and Eliana Zañartu Cruzat. He studied at the Colegio San Ignacio, and later attended the University of California in the United States, where he obtained a degree equivalent to Agronomical Engineering.

Riesco worked in his profession and as an agricultural businessman. He also served as counselor of several agricultural cooperatives, such as COPROSEF and COOPEÑUBLE, and in professional associations such as ANPROS.

He was a member of the Club de La Unión, the Los Leones Golf Club, the San Carlos Air Club, the Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura (SNA), and «Amigos del Arte», a private nonprofit created in 1976. He also served as vice president of the Fundación Presidente Balmaceda.^[2]

Riesco began his political career in 1961 by joining the Liberal Party. He participated in the Catemu Assembly in Aconcagua, serving as a delegate for that locality. Later, he joined the National Party and ran for Deputy in 1969.

He was elected Deputy for the 15th Departmental Group (San Carlos and Itata) for the 1969–1973 term. In Congress, he was a member of the Permanent Committees on Economy, Development and Reconstruction; Finance; Internal Government; and Latin American Integration. He also served on investigative committees on Banco del Estado loan concessions (1969–1970), violence against peasants and officials of CORA and INDAP (1969–1970), and irregularities in merchandise imports by Ford Company and other firms (1970). Between 1970 and 1971, he was an alternate member of the National Party's Parliamentary Committee. In 1970, he traveled to West Germany and France as part of a parliamentary delegation.

In the 1973 Chilean parliamentary election, he was reelected Deputy for the same constituency for the 1973–1977 term, serving as president of the Committee on Economy, Development and Reconstruction. However, his mandate was interrupted by the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, and Congress was dissolved by Decree-Law No. 27 on 21 September 1973.

During the military regime, he was appointed Undersecretary of Agriculture, serving from 1975 to 1978. He was also Acting Minister of Agriculture from 3 to 5 February 1977, and again from 18 to 21 January 1978. Later, he presided over the Santiago International Fair (FISA) in 1980.

He was part of the faction of the National Party that supported the «No» option in the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite. He became a member of the Party of the Center Alliance (PAC), serving as its president between 1989 and 1990. On 5 May 1990, during the presidency of Patricio Aylwin, he was appointed Ambassador of Chile to the United Kingdom.

• Fundación Presidente Balmaceda – Biography