Israel Bórquez
Israel Bórquez | |
|---|---|
| President of the Constitutional Court of Chile | |
| In office 11 March 1981 – 14 March 1985 | |
| President | Augusto Pinochet |
| Preceded by | Enrique Silva Cimma |
| Succeeded by | José María Eyzaguirre |
| President of the Supreme Court | |
| In office 1978–1983 | |
| President | Augusto Pinochet |
| Preceded by | José María Eyzaguirre |
| Succeeded by | Rafael Retamal López |
| Justice of the Supreme Court of Chile | |
| In office 1963–1989 | |
| President | Jorge Alessandri Eduardo Frei Montalva Salvador Allende Augusto Pinochet |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 28, 1905 Santiago, Chile |
| Died | May 8, 1989 (aged 84) Santiago, Chile |
| Spouse(s) | Victoria Eugenia Bórquez Díaz |
| Education | University of Chile |
| Occupation | Lawyer, judge |
Israel Bórquez Montero (28 March 1905 – 8 May 1989) was a Chilean lawyer and judge. He served as president of the Supreme Court of Chile from 1978 to 1983, a period during which he collaborated with the military dictatorship that governed the country.
Early life and education
Bórquez was born in Santiago, the son of Israel Bórquez Silva and Georgina Montero Chacón.[1]
He attended the Liceo Barros Borgoño and the Instituto Nacional, graduating in 1921. He subsequently enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile. He qualified as a lawyer on 11 January 1930.[1]
On 11 February 1934, he married Victoria Eugenia Bórquez Díaz, with whom he had no children.[1]
Judicial career
Bórquez entered the Chilean judiciary in July 1935 as secretary of the court in La Unión. In 1937, he became a judge in Castro, and in 1945 he was appointed a judge in the Department of Magallanes, based in Punta Arenas. In 1946, he was appointed a judge of the First Civil Court of Santiago.[1]
He was appointed a justice of the Court of Appeals of Santiago in May 1953 and became a justice of the Supreme Court of Chile in 1963.[1] He served as president of the Supreme Court from 1978 to 1983. Bórquez was also a member of the Constitutional Court of Chile, serving as its president from 11 March 1981 to 14 March 1985, and was a member of the Election Certification Court.[1]
Bórquez died on 8 May 1989, while still serving as a justice of the Supreme Court, after suffering a cardiac syncope.[2] His seat on the court was subsequently filled by Justice Lionel Beraud.
Role during the Pinochet regime
Bórquez was a public supporter of the military regime headed by Augusto Pinochet, according to Chilean journalist Alejandra Matus. He was one of four Supreme Court justices, including the court's president, Enrique Urrutia Manzano, who met secretly with the military junta on 30 October 1974. The meeting has been described as one of the earliest manifestations of cooperation between the regime and Chile's highest court.[3]
In 1978, while serving as president of the Supreme Court, Bórquez attracted controversy after declaring, in reference to the disappeared, "¡Los desaparecidos ya me tienen curco! ¡Pregúntenle a la Vicaría!" ("The disappeared have me fed up already! Ask the Vicariate!"). The following year, however, he opposed a reform of the Chilean Code of Criminal Procedure that transferred inspections of military facilities to the military justice system, arguing that "the ordinary justice system of our country deserves the confidence of the citizenry".
On 6 November 1981, Bórquez was wounded in an assassination attempt while travelling by car to his home. He was shot in the arm but was reported to be out of danger.[4][5]
In September 2016, the Central Intelligence Agency provided Chilean president Michelle Bachelet with declassified documents concerning the 1976 assassination of former foreign minister Orlando Letelier. One of the documents described an August 1978 meeting between Bórquez and Pinochet in which the general asked the judge to prevent the extradition of Manuel Contreras to the United States in connection with Letelier's murder. According to the document, Bórquez "promised Pinochet he would do everything possible".[6]
Days later, the Chamber of Deputies of Chile posthumously declared Bórquez a "national disgrace". The resolution was approved by 69 votes to 23 and called on the judiciary to remove images of the former judge from its premises and to refrain from holding tributes in his honour.[7]
Foreign honours
Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross (1980)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 De Ramón, Armando (1999). Biografías de chilenos: miembros de los Poderes Ejecutivo, Legislativo y Judicial 1876–1973 (in español). I. Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile. p. 190. ISBN 956-14-0529-6. Search this book on
- ↑ "Ha desaparecido Israel Bórquez". APSI (in español). 1989.
Traicionero y rebelde como siempre, el corazón le jugó una mala pasada al expresidente de la Corte Suprema, Israel Bórquez Montero, quien falleció de un síncope cardíaco el lunes 8 en la mañana.
- ↑ Urquieta, Claudia (13 September 2013). "El Acta Secreta que muestra la connivencia y colaboracionismo entre la Corte Suprema y el Gobierno Militar". El Mostrador (in español). Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Herido en atentado el presidente de la Corte". El Tiempo (in español). AFP. 7 November 1981. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Herido en atentado el presidente del Tribunal Supremo chileno". El País (in español). EFE. 7 November 1981. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Documento de la CIA revela cómo Pinochet manipuló a la Corte Suprema en el Caso Letelier". CIPER (in español). 23 September 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Cámara aprueba resolución que declara a Augusto Pinochet como artífice del asesinato del excanciller Orlando Letelier" (in español). Chamber of Deputies of Chile. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
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