Jorge Félix Arrate Mac Niven (born May 1, 1941, in Santiago) is a Chilean lawyer, economist, writer and politician.

He has been Minister of State in the governments of Chilean presidents Salvador Allende (1970–1973), Patricio Aylwin (1990–1994), and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994–2000).

[3] He is the son of a former navy officer, and municipal employee Juan Gabriel Arrate Ducoing and Ines Mac-Niven Seymour.

[9] At the end of 1970 president Salvador Allende commissioned him for the purchase of the Zig-Zag Editorial Group and the management of the firm that replaced it, Quimantú Editors.

[10] Later in 1971 he was designated as an economic advisor, and subsequently as chief executive officer of the Cuper Corporation (Codelco), where he was responsible for the nationalization of mineral deposits.

Jorge Arrate started his political career in 1957, serving secretary-general of the Federation of Secondary Students of Santiago.

In 1984, he tried to enter Chile against the will of the military regime three times and was rejected at the airport of Santiago and sent to Buenos Aires and Bogota.

Subsequently, the "Congress of Unity Salvador Allende" held later that year in Valparaiso was designated President Socialist Party of Chile.

Arrate lost the election, being chosen his running mate Jorge Pizarro and the conservative candidate, Evelyn Matthei.

[24][25] In July he lost the support of Humanist Party, who accused him of excessive approach to candidate Concertación, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle.

[26][27][28] Days later, Arrate joins the Communist Party of Chile for the sole purpose of complying with the electoral law.

[29][30] On December 13 in first round Arrate got 6.21% of votes, surpassed by the 20.13% of Marco Enriquez-Ominami,[31][32] the 29.60% of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and 44.05% of the conservative business magnate Sebastián Piñera.

[35] Away from active politics for 2013 Chilean general election decided not to support any candidate of extra-parliamentary left, otherwise he was to the formation of the covenant New Majority, which replaced the former coalition government.

In 1996 he was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Labour Organization (ILO), a post he held for one year.

In 2010 he received the first prize in the genre "memory writes" delivered by a jury of the National Book Council by the text "Passenger in Transit", a true story of testimony and reports on their attempts to go back to Chile during the military dictatorship.