He reached the presidency (September 18th, 1815) after a close race with his rival in the presidential elections, Javier Angel Figueroa.
On the economics front, taxes were raised, preventing an increase in the fiscal debt. In education, Congress passed a law (June 26th, 1916) that authorized Sanfuentes to invest up to 10 million pesos in the construction of public schools. Using this sum, 29 rural schools were erected (consisting of 80 students each), 20 urban schools (160 students each) and eight schools with a capacity of 400 students. Of the latter, four were built in Santiago and four in the provinces (La Serena, Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and Concepcion). In 1918, a law was passed that established fiscal relief for feeding children with scarce resources that were learning to read and write. One year later, the Universidad de Concepcion was built. In 1920, the Obligatory and Free Primary Instruction Law was passed, which had been proposed by Dario Salas.
