Julio Alberto Mercado Illanes β was a Chilean accountant, businessman and politician. Mercado pursued his elementary and secondary education at the Men of La Serena Lyceum. Later, he joined the Coquimbo Trade Institute, where he graduated as a General Accountant in , being awarded the best student by the Chamber of Commerce.
After completing his qualifications he worked at Gibs Williamson Ltd. Later, from to , he established offices and warehouses for the trading of fruit on behalf of the South American Fruit Company. From childhood Mercado had an inclination towards radical politics. Later he joined the adult Radical Party , remaining with the party until He was also the provincial leader of Private Sector Employees in the province of Coquimbo. Mercado reached the House of Representatives on October 8, , after being elected in a supplementary vote to replace Hugo Zepeda Barrios, who had been elected Senator.
This time he was rightly elected into the office for the period He also participated in the Special Commissions of Inquiry into the strike movement of Secondary Students and of the Copper Industry During this period he was a member of the Radical Parliamentary Committee and traveled to Tacna and Arica to the Chile-Peru Interparliamentary meeting held in That same year, he ran for Senator for the 2nd Provincial Association "Atacama and Coquimbo," but was not elected.
During his term, he was a member of the Independent Parliamentary Committee and President of the House of Representatives Between and he participated in the Inter-Parliamentary meeting that took place in the Netherlands , Germany , France , Italy and other European countries. In he was elected Member of Parliament by the same group departmental for the period However, his term came to an end following the military coup of September 11, , that by means of Decree Law 27 of September 21 of that year, Congress closed and the functions of the legislature ceased.
Mercado was not an active political opponent of the military regime, so he was not pursued. Even Radical Democracy was on the side of authoritarian rule until During this period he was President of the Association of Retired National Congressionals, which brought together former staff and former parliamentarians and presidents of the "Hall of Former Radical Parliamentarians", a body of former Senators and former Parliamentary representatives of the party, who advised the government of General Augusto Pinochet on certain issues.
