Manuel Hormazábal González

Manuel Hormazábal González
Chargé d'affaires in the Federal Republic of Germany
In office
1953–1959
PresidentCarlos Ibáñez del Campo
Deputy Director of the Military Geographic Institute
In office
1930–1939
PresidentCarlos Ibáñez del Campo
Personal details
Born(1900-06-04)June 4, 1900
Talcahuano, Chile
Died1987 (aged 86–87)
Santiago, Chile
PartyAgrarian Labor Party
SpouseMaría Alicia Amanda Burotto Urzúa[1][2]
RelativesGuillermo (brother)[3]
Alma materFrench Army Geographic Service
Prussian Geodetic Institute[4]
OccupationGeodesist, soldier, writer, university professor, advisor, and ambassador
Known forWorks about the Borders of Chile
Awards Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Commander of the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Military service
Allegiance Chile
Branch/service Chilean Army
Years of service1918-1939
RankColonel
Battles/warsAriostazo

Manuel Hormazábal González (June 4, 1900 – c. 1987)[5][6] was a Chilean geodesist, colonel, and writer, known for his contributions to the study of Chile's borders and his involvement with the Agrarian Labor Party[7] and Ibañismo, participating in the Ariostazo. As a colonel in the Chilean Army,[8] he held diplomatic roles, including chargé d'affaires (ambassador) in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1953 and 1959,[9][10] and advised the governments of Honduras and Panama. He published numerous works on territorial disputes with Argentina and other historical and political topics related to Borders of Chile.[11]

Career

Hormazábal joined the Chilean Army, reaching the rank of colonel.[8] He graduated from the Military Academy in 1918 as a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Infantry Regiment "Buin". Throughout his military career, he served in the Non-Commissioned Officers School, the Military Academy, and the 8th Mountain Detachment "Tucapel", concluding his military service in 1939.[12]

His work focused on the field of Chile's borders, contributing to technical studies on territorial boundaries.[13] Following the Seguro Obrero massacre in 1938, Hormazábal testified to the discontent manifested in both the Military Academy and the General Staff, leading to an open conspiracy. The center of the unrest shifted to the First Division, which was reportedly ready to revolt until the approval of the Army's staffing law, which generated numerous promotions, calmed the revolutionary spirit. All indications suggest that General Fuentes was behind the conspiracy. Apart from Hormazábal González's account, no other testimony remains regarding the agitation within the Army after the massacre.[3]

He served as deputy director of the Military Geographic Institute[14] between 1930 and 1939, during which he held all managerial positions and also taught various technical subjects. For a time, starting on May 13, 1936, he was absent from the country on a study trip to Germany.[15]

He was educated at the French Army Geographic Service and the Prussian Geodetic Institute in Potsdam,[4] where he gained expertise in cartography, photogrammetry, and geodesy, earning the title of geographic engineer upon completing his studies. He was the first Chilean officer sent by the government to specialize in the then-emerging discipline of aerial photogrammetry, which allowed him to further his training in Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland.[13] Thanks to his European training, he participated as Chile's official delegate at the International Geodesy Assembly held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1936 and the International Photogrammetry Congress held in Berlin, Germany, in 1937.[12] Between September 1935 and 1939, he served as director of the Academy of Topography and Geodesy,[16] as chief technical officer in Geodesy and Topography.[17]

In 1939, he was interrogated as a former officer due to his involvement in the Ariostazo[18] and was sentenced to three years of confinement in Lima, Peru.[19]

Between 1940 and 1942, he worked as an attaché in the Secretariat of War, Navy, and Aviation, served as a military advisor to the government of Honduras, and taught geodesy and astronomy at the National Autonomous University of Honduras in Tegucigalpa. During his stay in Honduras, the National Assembly approved various military organic laws, and the government issued regulations of the same nature, which he was tasked with drafting. He resigned when Honduras declared war on Germany, at a time when Chile still maintained neutrality.[13] In 1943 and 1944, he served as a technical advisor to the arbitrator in the Boundary Commission between Panama and Costa Rica following the Echandi-Fernández treaty between the two countries.[20]

He was a member of the Agrarian Labor Party, serving as president of the party in Las Condes, and supported Ibañismo and Chilean nationalism.[21]

Subsequently, between 1953 and 1959,[12] he served as chargé d'affaires in the Federal Republic of Germany,[9][10] by which time he was already married.[1]

In 1965, he was appointed Chile's official delegate and member of the Chilean Boundary Commission tasked with studying the Laguna del Desierto dispute, but he resigned from his positions, believing that the instructions given to the Chilean delegation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would weaken Chile's stance. For him, the border should have been established without the need for new cartographic studies.[22] He also wrote to President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who had appointed him as a "government delegate," in a letter dated August 20, 1970:

I believe that resolving this controversy will become increasingly difficult, because when it first arose, Chile occupied all the previously indicated territory and exercised sovereignty there. Now, according to my information, things have changed, as our Carabineros have reduced their range of action to the northern part of Laguna del Desierto, near Lake O'Higgins, leaving the rest of that Chilean territory, which Argentina claims, as a no-man's land, along which Argentina's Gendarmerie likely makes surreptitious incursions.[23]

Works

Hormazábal González was a prolific author on topics of territorial history, boundary disputes, and Chilean politics. His works focus on defending Chile's territorial integrity against Argentine claims and analyzing key historical periods.

  • El problema del levantamiento aéreo y la organización de los servicios del levantamiento de la carta. (1929)[24]
  • Tabla de logaritmos a cinco decimales (con apéndice y explicaciones) (1943)
  • El problema del levantamiento de la carta del territorio.
  • Berlín, encrucijada del mundo.
  • Palena y California. Tierras chilenas. (Estudio técnico de un problema limítrofe.) (1961)
  • Palena y California, tierras chilenas. (Second edition.) (1965)
  • Chile frente a Argentina en la controversia ya centenaria de sus límites (1968)
  • Chile, una patria mutilada. (1969)[25][26]
  • Cuando la sangre regó la tierra visión crítica de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. (1973)
  • El Canal de “Beagle” es territorio chileno. (1977)[27][28]
  • ¡Dialogando con Argentina! 1819-1978. (Síntesis histórica de las desmembraciones territoriales de Chile.) (1979)
  • Breve historia de los tratados de 1856 y 1881. (1984)[29]
  • Por los caminos de la democracia 1920-1940. (1989)[5]

Honors

For his service in the Army and his diplomatic work abroad, he received several distinctions, including the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, awarded by the Government of Panama.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Arturo Olavarría Bravo (1962). Chile entre dos Alessandri memorias políticas · Tomo 1 (in Spanish). Editorial Nascimento. pp. 26–27. He was a young teacher, Don Julio César Burotto [...] His son César became a general of the Republic, and his daughter, the wife of Don Manuel Hormazábal González, Chile's ambassador in Berlin.
  2. ^ Manuel Hormazábal González (1989). Por los caminos de la democracia: 1920-1940 (in Spanish). Military Geographic Institute (Chile). p. 7. A little over two years after the death of Manuel Hormazábal González, this work was given to me by his widow, Alicia Burotto.
  3. ^ a b Roberto Arancibia Clavel (September 2019). "VIENTOS DE REBELIÓN 1932 - 1973" (PDF) (in Spanish). Academy of Military History. Retrieved October 1, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Memorial tecnico del ejercito de Chile ... Tomo 7 (in Spanish). 1939. who conducted specialized studies in photogrammetry at the French Army Geographic Service and the Potsdam Geodetic Institute; from 1925 to 1929 inclusive. From 1933 to 36 inclusive ...
  5. ^ a b "Autor - Hormazábal González, Manuel, 1900-" (in Spanish). National Library of Chile. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  6. ^ Manuel Hormazábal González (1989). Por los caminos de la democracia: 1920-1940 (in Spanish). Military Geographic Institute (Chile). p. 7.
  7. ^ Cristián Garay Vera (1990). El Partido Agrario Laborista, 1945-1958 (in Spanish). Editorial Andrés Bello. p. 153.
  8. ^ a b "Diplomatic Defeat". La Tercera. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  9. ^ a b "ARCHIVO GENERAL HISTORICO". Archived from the original on 2015-05-31. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  10. ^ a b Cerda Etchevers, María Soledad de la. Chile y los hombres del tercer reich: crónicas y testimonios (in Spanish). Santiago de Chile: Editorial Sudamericana. p. 397. ISBN 9789562621434.
  11. ^ "Revista chilena de historia y geografía". Revista chilena de historia y geografía (in Spanish) (158): 52. 1990.
  12. ^ a b c d Manuel Hormazábal González (1980). ¡Dialogando con Argentina...! 1819-1978 síntesis histórica de las desmembraciones territoriales de Chile (in Spanish). Chilean Army. pp. 9–10.
  13. ^ a b c "Anuario" (PDF) (in Spanish). Academy of Military History of Chile. p. 104. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  14. ^ Juan Lúcar Figueroa (1997). Base O'Higgins, 50 años 1948-1998 (in Spanish). Chilean Army. p. 31.
  15. ^ Anuario (in Spanish). Military Geographic Institute (Chile). 1935.
  16. ^ Anuario del Instituto geográfico militar (in Spanish). Vol. 3–4. Military Geographic Institute (Chile). 1935.
  17. ^ Memorial del Ejército de Chile Tomo 30 (in Spanish). Chilean Army. 1937.
  18. ^ "Several former officers interrogated" (PDF). La Nación (in Spanish). August 31, 1938. p. 11. Retrieved October 1, 2025.
  19. ^ Elizabeth Lira Kornfeld; Brian Loveman (2021). Poder Judicial y conflictos políticos. Volumen I. (Chile: 1925-1958) (in Spanish). LOM Ediciones. ISBN 9789560013767.
  20. ^ Manuel Hormazábal González (1984). Breve historia de los tratados de 1856 y 1881 (in Spanish). University of Santiago.
  21. ^ "Agrarians of Las Condes elected new leadership" (PDF). La Nación (in Spanish). March 25, 1948. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  22. ^ Luis Santiago Sanz (1995). Laguna del Desierto estudio de una crisis (in Spanish). pp. 69 and 74. Manuel Hormazábal González, who was part of it, the body concluded that the border line was correctly drawn on the cartographic maps or plans published by the Military Geographic Institute in 1965.
  23. ^ Peri Fagerström, René (1994). ¿La geografía derrotada? el arbitraje de Laguna del desierto, campos de hielo Patagonico Sur (in Spanish) (1 ed.). Santiago de Chile: Sersicom F & E. p. 56. ISBN 9789567471010.
  24. ^ "PENSAMIENTO Y PENSADORES MILITARES IBEROAMERICANOS DEL SIGLO XX Y SU INFLUENCIA EN LA COMUNIDAD IBEROAMERICANA" (PDF). CESEDEN (in Spanish). 2003. p. 228. Retrieved October 1, 2025.
  25. ^ "Cruzando la cordillera" (PDF) (in Spanish). Editorial Universidad de Los Lagos. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  26. ^ Sater, William F. (1979). "A Survey of Recent Chilean Historiography, 1965–1976" (PDF). Latin American Research Review. 14 (2): 55–88. doi:10.1017/S0023879100031940.
  27. ^ "Hormazábal González, Manuel" (in Spanish). National Digital Library of Chile. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  28. ^ "1968" (in Spanish). National Digital Library of Chile. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  29. ^ "Breve historia de los tratados de 1856 y 1881" (in Spanish). University of Chile. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
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