Lisandro Cruz

Lisandro Cruz Ponce
Minister of Justice
In office
3 November 1970 – 28 January 1972
PresidentSalvador Allende
Preceded byGustavo Lagos Matus
Succeeded byManuel Sanhueza
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
5 July 1950 – 15 May 1953
Preceded byCarlos Souper Maturana
Constituency2nd Departamental Grouping
Minister of Labor
In office
3 February 1946 – 6 September 1946
PresidentJuan Antonio Ríos
Preceded byMariano Bustos Lagos
Succeeded byLuis Mandujano Tobar
Personal details
Born(1911-12-11)11 December 1911
Died4 August 1997(1997-08-04) (aged 85)
Party
SpouseCristina Ulloa Chacón
Children4
Parent(s)Carlos Cruz
Rosa Ponce
Alma materUniversity of Chile (LL.B)
ProfessionLawyer

Lisandro Cruz Ponce (11 December 1911 – 4 August 1997) was a Chilean lawyer and politician.[1]

He served as Minister of Labor during the presidency of Juan Antonio Ríos in 1946,[1] and later as Minister of Justice under President Salvador Allende from 1970 to 1972.[1] He also held a seat as a Deputy of the Republic from 1950 to 1953.[1]

Biography

Born in La Calera to Carlos Cruz and Rosa Ponce, he studied at the Liceo of San Felipe and later at the University of Chile, where he graduated as a lawyer in 1936 with the thesis A Study on Modern Civil Law.[1] He worked as an assistant to Professor Arturo Alessandri Rodríguez in civil law and as a local police judge in Puente Alto.[1] He married Cristina Ulloa Chacón, with whom he had four children.[1]

Political career

Cruz Ponce joined the Socialist Party in 1934.[1] In 1950, he was elected as a Deputy in a by-election for the 2nd Departmental Constituency (Antofagasta, Tocopilla, El Loa and Taltal), completing the 1949–1953 legislative term.[1] He served on the Foreign Relations, Labor and Social Legislation, and Economy and Commerce commissions.[1]

He was appointed Minister of Labor in February 1946, serving until September of the same year in the government of Juan Antonio Ríos.[1] In 1968, he joined the Independent Popular Action (API).[1] Later, he was appointed Minister of Justice by Salvador Allende, holding the position from November 1970 until January 1972.[1] During his tenure, he signed a decree of pardon together with Allende for members of the MIR and other far-left militants, which triggered a constitutional accusation against him in February 1971.[2] He also served as acting Minister of Education for one week in February 1971,[1] and later as director of the Central Bank of Chile.[1]

After the 1973 coup d'état, he went into exile in Mexico, where he became a professor of law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and later a researcher at its Institute of Legal Research.[3] He died there on 4 August 1997.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Parliamentary biographies: Lisandro Cruz Ponce". Library of the National Congress of Chile. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  2. ^ "Anales de la República: Lisandro Cruz Ponce". Anales.cl. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Profile: Lisandro Cruz Ponce (UNAM)" (PDF). Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, UNAM. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  4. ^ "Obituary – Lisandro Cruz Ponce – 1997". Juristas UNAM. Retrieved 11 November 2018.