Víctor Pey

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Pey at age 100 in 2015

Víctor Pey Casado (31 August 1915 – 5 October 2018) was a Spanish-born Chilean engineer, professor and businessman.

He was born in Madrid, the son of writer and priest Segismundo Pey Ordeix, and Manuela Casado, from Valladolid.[1] At the age of two, he moved with his family to Barcelona. During the Spanish Civil War, he fought on the Republican side and was a member to the Durruti Column. He formed part of the Spanish government in exile as a technical advisor to the War Industries Commission of Catalonia. He crossed the Pyrenees into France on 25 January 1939, was interned by French authorities and sent to a prison camp at Perpignan.[2] In September 1939, Pablo Neruda arranged that Pey and his family board the SS Winnipeg for Chile.[3]

After arriving in

Pinochet dictatorship was imposed in 1973, El Clarín was shut down. Pey was persecuted by the military junta and went into exile, not returning until the 1990s.[3]

In 1997, Pey initiated a lawsuit against the Chilean government in the World Bank Tribunal for the expropriation of his newspaper. Successive Chilean administrations held the position of not paying Pey. After a 19-year legal battle, the case was dismissed without Pey receiving any damages.[3]

Pey identified as an agnostic.[2] He was named honorary rector of the University of Chile in 2015, coinciding with his centenary. He died of natural causes on 5 October 2018, aged 103.[5]

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