Hugo Rosende

Hugo Rosende
Hugo Rosende in 1984.
Minister of Justice of Chile
In office 19 December 1983 – 11 March 1990
President	Augusto Pinochet
Preceded by	Jaime del Valle
Succeeded by	Francisco Cumplido Cereceda
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 15 May 1949 – 15 May 1965
Constituency	7th Departmental Grouping, Santiago
Personal details
Born	(1916-05-09)May 9, 1916 Chillán, Chile
Died	December 5, 1990(1990-12-05) (aged 74) Santiago, Chile
Party	Conservative Party Traditionalist Conservative Party United Conservative Party
Spouse	Marta Álvarez Murillo (m. 1942)
Children	Five
Parent(s)	Francisco Javier Rosende de la Fuente Ana María Subiabre Peña
Education	Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Occupation	Lawyer and politician

José Hugo Rosende Subiabre (Chillán, 9 May 1916 – Santiago, 5 December 1990) was a Chilean lawyer and politician affiliated with the Conservative movement.

He served as Deputy of the Republic between 1949 and 1965, and later as Minister of Justice during the military regime of Augusto Pinochet between 1983 and 1990.

Biography

Born in Chillán on 9 May 1916, he was the son of Francisco Javier Rosende de la Fuente, Minister of the Court of Appeals of Iquique, and of Ana María Subiabre Peña. He studied at the Instituto de Humanidades Luis Campino in Santiago and later earned his law degree at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, graduating in 1941 with a thesis titled La promulgación y la publicación de la ley.

He married Marta Álvarez Murillo in 1942 and had five children. Between 1943 and 1983 he served as professor of civil law at both the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Political and professional career

Rosende entered politics as a member of the Conservative Party. He was elected Deputy for the 7th Departmental Group (Santiago) in the 1949 Chilean parliamentary election, being re-elected in 1953, 1957 and 1961. He served on the Permanent Commission on Constitution, Legislation and Justice, and on committees on Education, Defence and Internal Affairs.

He also worked as a legal adviser to President Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez (1958–1961). His parliamentary and professional career was marked by his conservative Catholic orientation and his later alignment with authoritarian legal reform.

After the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, Rosende became a legal adviser to the Military Junta. He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile (1976–1983), a period in which he promoted a return to strict legal positivism and carried out ideological purges within the faculty.

Minister of Justice (1983–1990)

In December 1983, General Pinochet appointed him Minister of Justice, a position he held until the end of the regime in March 1990. He was regarded as one of the strongest defenders of the military government within the cabinet and as the architect of the judiciary’s institutional alignment with the regime.

His tenure was characterized by his control over judicial appointments and the so-called “Ley Caramelo” (1989), which incentivized the early retirement of Supreme Court judges to ensure a generational replacement favorable to the regime’s continuity.

He died in Santiago on 5 December 1990 at age 74.

References

Bibliography

• El libro negro de la justicia en Chile, Alejandra Matus, Editorial Planeta, Santiago, 1999.
• Anales de la República, entry “Hugo Rosende Subiabre,” www.anales.cl.
• Luis Maira, El amarre institucional del general Pinochet y las restricciones de la transición chilena, Siglo XXI Editores, México, 2001.