Diego Portales Palazuelo

Diego José Pedro Víctor Portales y Palazuelos was a Chilean statesman, military figure and entrepreneur. As a minister of president José Joaquín Prieto's government, he played a pivotal role in shaping the state and politics in the 19th century, delivering with the Constitution of 1833 the framework of the Chilean state for almost a century. Portales' influential political policies included unitarianism, presidentialism and conservatism which led to the consolidation of Chile as a constitutional, authoritarian and aristocratic republic with the franchise restricted to upper class men from the gentry.