Mariano Ruiz-Esquide

Mariano Ruiz-Esquide was a Chilean surgeon and politician who lived from 10 May 1930 to 20 January 2024. He was born in Talcahuano and obtained his medical degree at the University of Concepción in 1955, then held a scholarship in 1957 and 1958 for postgraduate studies in hematology at the Central University of Madrid. He served as an assistant professor in the departments of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Concepción and practised at hospitals in Los Ángeles and Concepción. A long-time member of the Christian Democratic Party, he signed the 1973 Declaration of the Group of Thirteen rejecting the military coup, was relegated to Antofagasta in 1977, and from 1981 led the regional council of the Chilean Medical Association, serving as its president until 1989. In that year he was elected senator for the Biobío Region, a seat he held through three consecutive terms until 2014. He died in Viña del Mar at the age of 93.