Luis Arteaga García (1871 – December 1938) was a Chilean civil servant and politician, and a member of the Liberal Party (PL).
He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commerce during the final three months of the second administration of President Arturo Alessandri, from September to December 1938.
Early life and education Arteaga was born in Santiago in 1871, the son of Luis Arteaga Morales and Elvira García Lastarria. He received his primary and secondary education at the Instituto Nacional. He subsequently studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile, but did not graduate.
He married Clara Gómez Cibils, a French woman, with whom he had four children: Raúl, Rosa Olga, Raquel, and Herminia.
Public career Arteaga began his career in the public administration on 1 October 1889, when he joined the Ministry of Finance as an assistant officer, a position he held until 1891. During the civil war of 1891, he joined the Army of the Congressionalist faction, which fought against President José Manuel Balmaceda. During the conflict, he took part in the Battle of Concón and the Battle of Placilla, leaving military service with the rank of captain.
During the administration of President Jorge Montt, Arteaga entered the diplomatic service on 16 August 1894 as an officer at the Chilean Legation in Peru, serving under Minister Plenipotentiary Máximo Lira. In 1906, President Germán Riesco appointed him governor of the Department of Arica. He remained in the post under the next three presidents—Pedro Montt, Ramón Barros Luco, and Juan Luis Sanfuentes—until 1920.
In 1925, President Arturo Alessandri appointed Arteaga an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the rank of minister plenipotentiary. He remained in that position until the end of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo's presidency in July 1931. During his tenure, he served as a government commissioner for the planned 1925 plebiscite concerning the Tacna and Arica dispute, which ultimately did not take place. Near the end of Alessandri's second administration, on 15 September 1938, the president appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commerce. He held the post until the end of the administration on 24 December 1938.
Among his other activities, Arteaga was a member of the Club de la Unión and the Chilean Society of History and Geography. He died in his native Santiago in December 1938, only days after leaving the government.
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