Osvaldo Puccio

Osvaldo Puccio
Ministry General Secretariat of Government
In office
24 May 2005 – 11 March 2006
PresidentRicardo Lagos
Preceded byFrancisco Vidal
Succeeded byRicardo Lagos Weber
Personal details
Born (1952-12-21) 21 December 1952
Santiago, Chile
PartySocialist Party
Revolutionary Left Movement
SpouseIngrid Kohlhofer
ChildrenThree
Alma mater
ProfessionEconomist

Osvaldo Carlos Puccio Huidobro (born 21 December 1952) is a Chilean politician who served as minister.[1]

Family and education

His father was Luis Osvaldo Puccio, personal secretary to Salvador Allende, and his mother was Myriam Huidobro Reichhardt. He completed his primary education at the Escuela República Argentina, Santiago.

He attended the Instituto Nacional in Santiago,[2] where he became a student leader and served as president of the student council in 1969.[3] He studied law at the University of Chile for three years.[2]

He describes himself as an agnostic, despite not following his family's Masonic tradition.[4]

Political career

Early career and exile

He was a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) between 1970 and 1973.[2] During the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, at the age of 21, he was arrested and tortured alongside his father by the repressive agencies of the Chilean military dictatorship, spending seven months imprisoned at the Dawson Island concentration camp.[2][5][6]

On 10 September 1974, he went into exile in Romania and later moved to East Germany, where he earned a doctorate in philosophy from Humboldt University of Berlin.[2] In recognition of his academic performance, he was awarded a trip to the Soviet Union in July 1977. The Stasi, which kept him under surveillance, noted in one of its reports that his frequent trips abroad caused resentment among his fellow Chilean exiles, who were not permitted to travel. In Potsdam, Puccio Huidobro reunited with future President Michelle Bachelet, whom he had known during their secondary school years.[2] He remained in East Germany until 1984, when he returned to Chile.

Concertación era

He joined the Socialist Party of Chile and, following the end of the rule of Augusto Pinochet, held several positions in the governments of the Concertación. During the presidency of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, he served as ambassador to Austria from 1994 to 2000,[5] while also being concurrently accredited to Slovakia (1995–2000), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997–2000), and Slovenia (1997–2000).

Later, President Ricardo Lagos appointed him ambassador to Brazil, a position he held from 2003 to 2005.[2]

Following the appointment of Francisco Vidal as Minister of the Interior, Lagos appointed him Minister Secretary-General of Government—the government's official spokesperson—on 25 May 2005. His appointment drew attention because he presented a marked contrast to his predecessor, who was notably tall and spoke with a powerful voice, whereas Puccio was of short stature and had a distinctive speaking voice.[7]

President Michelle Bachelet appointed him ambassador to Spain in 2006. He resigned in September 2008 for personal reasons and to pursue activities in the private sector. The following month, he became advisory director for Latin America at the Spanish construction group Acciona.

References

  1. ↑ García Lorca, Macarena (4 May 2015). "Osvaldo Puccio: el hombre de Ponce Lerou en la Concertación y sus cuestionadas asesorías a Codelco y Gendarmería". El Mostrador. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "1". Qué Pasa. 28 May 2005.
  3. ↑ "Qué Pasa". Qué Pasa. 1 October 2005. Archived from the original on 26 November 2005.
  4. ↑ El Mercurio (Santiago), 26 April 1994, Ya, p. 12.
  5. 1 2 Diario Siete (Santiago), 29 May 2005, p. 22.
  6. ↑ La Segunda (Santiago), 24 May 2005, p. 14.
  7. ↑ Diario Siete (Santiago), 25 May 2005.
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