Gabriel González Videla
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Template:Infobox President Gabriel González Videla (22 November 1898–August 22 1980) was President of Chile from 1946 to 1952. Born in La Serena and trained as a lawyer, he was elected to Chile's Lower House of Congress for the Radical Party in 1929, and served as president of the party from 1932. He ran unsuccessfully for president against Juan Antonio Ríos in 1942. Throughout his career, he also served in many diplomatic postings, and represented Chile at the United Nations conference in San Francisco.
González was elected president of Chile in 1946. Soon after assuming office, he launched a harsh campaign against the country's Communist Party. A miners' strike in Lota was brutally suppressed, key figures in the party were exiled, and others, including poet Pablo Neruda, were forced into hiding. Many of the strikers and other opponents of his regime were thrown into vast prison camps. By 1949, these actions had led to violent demonstrations and riots against González, forcing him to declare martial law. This succeeded in restoring order to the country, though it challenged the democractic structure, and Videla's successor, President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, an admirer of Juan Peron in neighboring Argentina, was suspected of attempting to introduce a dictatorship to the country.
González retired from politics after leaving the presidency. He died in 1980.
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