Sergio Onofre Jarpa

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Sergio Onofre Jarpa

| image = Sergio Onofre Jarpa (1965) cropped.jpg

| image_size =

| office = Minister of the Interior

| president = Augusto Pinochet

| term_start = 10 August 1983

| term_end = 12 February 1985

| predecessor = Enrique Montero Marx

| successor = Ricardo García Rodríguez

| office2 = Member of the Senate

| constituency2 = LIII

| term_start2 = 15 May 1973

| term_end2 = 21 September 1973

| constituency3 = LV

| term_start3 = 11 March 1990

| term_end3 = 11 March 1994

| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|3|8|df=y}}

| birth_place = Rengo, Chile

| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|4|19|1921|3|8|df=y}}

| death_place = Las Condes

| party = Popular Freedom Alliance
(1938)
Popular Socialist Vanguard
(1939–1942)
Agrarian Labor Party
(1950-1958)
National Action
(1963-1966)
National Party
(1966-1973)
National Labour Front
(1985-1987)
National Renewal
(1987-1997)

| alma_mater = University of Chile

| occupation = Diplomat, farmer

| parents = Francisco Javier Jarpa Santa Cruz (father)
Raquel Reyes Corona (mother)

| spouse = Silvia Moreno Andwandter (1950s-1978; her death)

| partner = Mina Huerta Dunsmore (1980s-present)

| children = Sergio Jr.,
Jorge,
Francisco,
Isabel

| relations = Onofre Jarpa (ancestor)

| awards = Premio al Mérito Geopolítico (1991)

| website =

}}

Sergio Onofre Jarpa Reyes (8 March 1921 – 19 April 2020) was a Chilean right-wing politician who served as one of the founders of the National Renewal party.

Biography

Coming from a rural background, he studied agriculture at the University of Chile.{{Cite web |url=http://biografias.bcn.cl/pags/biografias/detalle_par.php?id=125 |title=Library of the Chilean National Congress Biography |access-date=28 December 2009 |archive-date=15 January 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130115235734/http://biografias.bcn.cl/pags/biografias/detalle_par.php?id=125 |url-status=dead }} He first became involved in politics in the 1950s, initially with the youth movement of the Agrarian Labor Party before becoming involved in the National Action with Jorge Prat. He was instrumental in the formation of the National Party in 1966 and served as leader of the opposition to the left-wing government and, from 1971, editor of the anti-socialist journal Tribuna.

Elected to the Senate of Chile in the 1973 election, Jarpa became a diplomat following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, serving as a delegate to the United Nations and before becoming ambassador to Colombia (1976-1978) and then Argentina (1978-1983). Jarpa was appointed Minister of the Interior in 1983 with special orders to open dialogue with the opposition, which had organised under the name Democratic Alliance. This policy of appeasement was quickly abandoned by Pinochet however.Thomas C. Wright & Rody Zunate Oniga, "Chilean Political Exile", Latin American Perspectives, 2007 34: 44 He held the post until 1985. He formed his own political movement, the National Labour Front (Frente Nacional del Trabajo), in 1985 and this group was one of the three that formed National Renewal two years later. He returned to the Senate as a representative of this new party in 1990.

Alongside his political career Jarpa was a noted author on socio-political topics and he was awarded the Premio al Mérito Geopolítico by the Chilean Institute of Geopolitics in 1991.

He died from COVID-19 on 19 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile.{{cite web|url=https://www.adnradio.cl/nacional/2020/04/21/entrega-de-certificados-confirman-que-sergio-onofre-jarpa-murio-producto-del-covid-19.html|title=Entrega de certificados confirman que Sergio Onofre Jarpa murió producto del Covid-19|work=ADN Radio|date=21 April 2020|accessdate=21 April 2020|language=es-CL}}