The presidential provincial delegate of Cardenal Caro Province is the appointed head of government of the provincial government in Cardenal Caro Province, Chile since 2021. The delegate is designated by the president.
The first delegate of Cardenal Caro Province was Carlos Ortega Bahamondes, appointed by president Sebastián Piñera Echenique in 2021. The post is currently held by Josefina Toro Rodríguez, who was designated by president Gabriel Boric Font in 2023.
The history of the province began when, on July 13, 1973, President Salvador Allende decreed the creation of the Cardenal Caro Department, which would become a province on October 3, 1979, as General Augusto Pinochet decreed its creation under the name of Cardenal Caro (Cardinal Caro), in honour of José María Caro Rodríguez, the first Roman Catholic Church Cardinal, who was born in Ciruelos near the province's capital city, Pichilemu.[2] The communes of Litueche (formerly El Rosario), La Estrella, Marchihue, Paredones, and Pichilemu, originally from Colchagua Province; and Navidad, originally from San Antonio Province, formed the province.[2] The first governor of Cardenal Caro was Marcelo Nogueira Hidalgo, who held the office from 1979 until 1990.[3]
In 2021, a new regionalization law was enacted and the former post of governor of Cardenal Caro province was replaced by the presidential provincial delegate of Cardenal Caro. Then governor Carlos Ortega Bahamondes, originally appointed in 2018, was confirmed as presidential provincial delegate by president Sebastián Piñera on 14 July 2021.[4]
