By birth, he was the son of a former Minister of the Interior, great-grandson of Andrés Bello and nephew to President José Manuel Balmaceda.

His immediate superior at the consulate in Brussels was charge d'affaires Don Luis Waddington, who had two children: Adelaida and Carlos.

Soon after his arrival, Balmaceda started to court Adelaide and shortly thereafter, the parents of the bride-to-be found out that the young couple already had had sexual intercourse.

Ernesto Balmaceda panicked and on February 24, 1906, the day when the engagement was to be publicly announced at an embassy banquet, he hid in his rooming-house, with his friend Javier Rengifo.

[6] By the time the trial happened, public opinion had shifted in Waddington's favor, and he was viewed as the avenger of his sister's honor.