Mario Fernández Baeza | |
Office: | Interior Minister of Chile |
Term Start: | 8 June 2016 |
Term End: | 11 March 2018 |
President: | Michelle Bachelet |
Predecessor: | Jorge Burgos |
Successor: | Andrés Chadwick |
Office2: | Defense Minister of Chile |
Term Start2: | 11 March 2000 |
Term End2: | 7 January 2002 |
Predecessor2: | Edmundo Pérez Yoma |
Successor2: | Michelle Bachelet |
President2: | Ricardo Lagos |
Office3: | Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency |
Term Start3: | 7 January 2002 |
Term End3: | 3 March 2003 |
Predecessor3: | Álvaro García Hurtado |
Successor3: | Francisco Huenchumilla |
President3: | Ricardo Lagos |
Birth Date: | 22 November 1947 |
Birth Place: | Rancagua, Chile |
Education: | Universidad de Chile Heidelberg University |
Party: | Christian Democratic Party (Chile) |
Mario Adolfo del Carmen Fernández Baeza (born 22 November 1947 in Rancagua) is a Chilean lawyer, professor and politician, member of the Christian Democratic Party. He served as the Minister of the Interior and Public Security in Michelle Bachelet's second term.
Previously he served as Minister of State of president Ricardo Lagos, minister of the Chilean Constitutional Court (2006-2011), and ambassador of Chile to Germany, Austria, and Uruguay.
He studied in the Public School Nª 3 and the Liceo de Hombres, both in his native town.[1] He was secretary and vice-president of the Students Centre of his school, and its delegate in two National Congresses of Secondary Students. He also was member of the Youth of Catholic Students.
Later he studied in the Universidad de Chile Law School in Valparaíso, between 1967 and 1969, when he moved to the Law School in Santiago. He got a grade in Juridical and Social Sciences in 1975. Afterwards he earned doctorates in political science, history, international right public and philosophy from Heidelberg University, Germany.[2] [3]
He has been Law professor in the Diego Portales University, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and University of Chile, among others.[3]
He joined the Christian Democrat Party in 1966. He served as undersecretary of Aviation and War during the governments of the presidents Patricio Aylwin and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1990-1993, 1994-1995 and 1996-1999).[2] [3] [4] [5]
In 2000 he was appointed by president Ricardo Lagos as minister of National Defence, until 2002, when a cabinet reshuffle assigned the Ministry to Michelle Bachelet, and Fernández was named Minister General Secretariat of the Presidency (2002-2003).[6] Later he was designated ambassador to Germany.[7] [8]
On 13 December 2005, the Senate appointed him minister of the Constitutional Court of Chile, starting on 1 January 2006.[9] [10] He resigned on 31 March 2011, to join the consulting firm Latinus and restart his teaching classes in different universities.[11] [12]
In 2014 he assumed, in the second term of Michelle Bachelet, as ambassador to Germany, being reassigned in mid-2015 to Uruguay. On 8 June 2016, president Bachelet appointed him as minister of the Interior and Public Security, in replacement of the renounced Jorge Burgos.[13]
Fernández is an Opus Dei member.[14]