The son of Luis Baltra Opazo and Luisa Cortés Monroy, Alberto Baltra studied at the Liceo de Traiguén and the
National Institute. He entered the
University of Chile, where he received the institution's award for the best graduate in 1935. He obtained his law degree in 1937, with a report entitled
Ensayo de una teoría general de los actos inoponibles. In the complementary elections of 1968 he was elected
senator for the eighth provincial group of
Bío Bío,
Malleco, and
Cautín, replacing the late
José García González (
PDC). The new group was originally part of Popular Unity, but it later abandoned this alliance and was critical of the Allende government. For the parliamentary elections of March 1973, the PIR joined with other
centre-right opposition parties in the
Confederation of Democracy, formed in July 1972, and Baltra ran for Senator for
Santiago, but received only 1.92% of the vote. Baltra wrote several works on economics, some of which were awarded and used as textbooks at the University of Chile. He was a professor there, and among his disciples was the future president
Ricardo Lagos, who was his assistant. He was a member of the Chilean Academy of Social, Political, and Moral Sciences. In 1940 he married the lawyer
Adriana Olguín, who would be the first female minister in Latin America to occupy the
Justice portfolio under González Videla. The couple had one son, Luis Alberto Baltra Olguín. ==Works==