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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Camilo Escalona, former president of Chile’s Socialist Party, dies at 71

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Official statement Outcome reported
  • Camilo Escalona, a longtime Chilean Socialist Party leader and former Senate president, died at 71 after his health deteriorated because of prostate cancer, the party said.
  • Escalona led the party during three periods between 1994 and 2010 and became a prominent figure in Chile’s democratic and socialist politics.
  • He entered the Socialist Youth at 13, lived in exile after the 1973 coup and returned to Congress after democracy was restored.

Camilo Escalona Medina, a central figure in Chilean socialism for five decades, has died at 71 after his health declined because of prostate cancer. The Socialist Party announced his death on social media on Friday night.

The party remembered Escalona with a video and a tribute to a politician who played a key role in the history of the Concertación, the coalition formed after Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship and later democratic governments. He led the Socialist Party three times, from 1994 to 1998, from 2001 to 2003, and from 2006 to 2010. Those periods coincided with the consolidation of socialism as one of the main parties in the coalition that governed Chile for two decades.

The party’s leadership said Escalona’s death “constitutes a loss for the Socialist Party of Chile, the democratic movement and everyone who shared decades of political and social struggle with him.” He served as president of Chile’s Senate from 2012 to 2013 and stepped away from public political life early this year because of his illness. He had discussed his condition publicly only once, saying it was a personal matter and that the information was not essential for the public.

Constitutes a loss for the Socialist Party of Chile, the democratic movement and everyone who shared decades of political and social struggle with him.

· Socialist Party leadershipThe party used the statement in its public tribute after Escalona’s death.

Escalona never served as a minister or ran for president. His political life unfolded mainly in Congress after democracy returned in 1990, nearly two decades after he joined the Unidad Popular, the left-wing electoral coalition that brought Salvador Allende to power in 1970. Born on June 15, 1955, he joined the Socialist Youth in 1969 and later became president of Santiago’s secondary students’ federation.

After the coup that overthrew Allende in 1973, Escalona lived in exile in Vienna, Cuba and East Berlin. He later returned to Chile in the 1980s and operated underground. President José Antonio Kast expressed his condolences, writing: “I regret the death of Camilo Escalona. I knew him as a deputy. We stood on opposite sides of politics. I recognize in him someone who”

I regret the death of Camilo Escalona. I knew him as a deputy. We stood on opposite sides of politics. I recognize in him someone who

· José Antonio KastThe Chilean president posted condolences on social media; the supplied article ends before the quote is completed.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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