Carlos Altamirano

Socialist Party of Chile Social democracy Revolutionary socialism 1922.12.18.–2019.5.19. ○ Natural causes

Socialist Party general secretary who led its left wing and pressed to speed up the revolution under Popular Unity

On 26 July 1971, newly elected general secretary of the Socialist Party, he called on Allende to dissolve the National Congress.

A lawyer and professor of economic law born in Santiago, Altamirano joined the Socialist Party of Chile in 1945 and sat as a deputy (1961–1965) and senator (1965–1973). He became the party's general secretary in 1971 and held the post until 1979. As the voice of its left wing he pressed against Allende's caution and the Communists' policy of compromise for the revolution to be accelerated, "advance without compromise", and in a speech on 9 September 1973 he called for resistance to a coup. After the coup he went into exile via Cuba in East Berlin and Paris and in 1977 analysed Popular Unity's failure in Dialéctica de una derrota. In exile he moved towards social democracy, and he returned to Chile in 1993.

Also known as: Carlos Altamirano Orrego