Ignacio Prado Benítez

Ignacio Arturo Prado Benítez (23 December 1915 – 10 October 1999) was a Chilean agriculturist, enologist, and politician affiliated with the Liberal Party. He served as Deputy of the Republic between 1961 and 1965, representing the southern districts of Ancud, Quinchao, Castro, and Palena.^[1]

Born in Santiago on 23 December 1915, he was the son of Arturo Prado Fernández-Albano and Mercedes Benítez P. He completed his primary and secondary studies at the Liceo de Aplicación and at the Liceo de San Bernardo. He then entered the University of Chile’s School of Practical Agriculture, graduating in 1937. Later, he studied enology in Bordeaux, France, completing a specialized program in viticulture and wine production.^[2]

He married three times: first to Lucía Soruco del Campo, with whom he had two children; then to María Lucía Puga Domínguez, with whom he had three more; and finally to María Josefina Eliana Gatica Bustamante. Among his children was Arturo Prado, later a Minister of the Supreme Court of Chile.^[3]

Before entering politics, Prado worked at the Chilean Directorate of Prisons, where he became Head of the Library and Administrative Section of the Santiago Penitentiary. He later became a wine broker, serving as president of the National Association of Wine Brokers and as a National Counselor of the Corporación Vitivinícola de Chile.

His agricultural ventures extended to the southern island of Chiloé, where in 1991 he founded a fishing company in Quemchi. He also owned farmland in the province of Chiloé, combining agricultural production with regional economic development projects.^[1]

A lifelong member of the Liberal Party, Prado Benítez served as a Municipal Councilor of San Bernardo between 1944 and 1951. He later became National Counselor of the Liberal Youth and, in 1988, President of the Liberal Party during its final years before the democratic transition.^[1]

In the 1961 Chilean parliamentary election, he was elected Deputy for the districts of Ancud, Quinchao, Castro, and Palena for the 1961–1965 legislative period. During his tenure, he sat on the Permanent Commission on Agriculture and Colonization.

He also served as President of the Sports Council of San Bernardo, the League of Poor Students, and the Deportivo San Bernardo Club, contributing to civic and youth development initiatives in his community.

• Diccionario Histórico y Biográfico de Chile, Fernando Castillo Infante (ed.), Editorial Zig-Zag, Santiago, 1996.
• Historia Política de Chile y su Evolución Electoral 1810–1992, Germán Urzúa Valenzuela, Editorial Jurídica de Chile, Santiago, 1992.
• El Mercurio, obituary note “Falleció Ignacio Prado Benítez, exdiputado liberal y vitivinicultor,” 12 October 1999.