Ministro Zenteno was a protected cruiser of the Chilean Navy.
In November 1894, the Brazilian government placed an order for three protected cruisers with the British shipyard Armstrong, Mitchell & Company. The first of these ships was laid down on 6 May 1895 at Armstrong's Elswick shipyard, but financial difficulties resulted in the first installment for the ship being delayed, and it was instead sold to the Chilean government in September 1895. At first, the ship was to be named Chacabucu, but was launched with the name Ministro Zenteno on 1 February 1896. Work continued for Brazil on the remaining two ships, with another cruiser ordered to the same design to replace Ministro Zenteno, but only one, , was operated by Brazil, with the other two ships, Amazonas (later ) and Almirante Abreu (later ), purchased by the United States Navy on the eve of the SpanishâÂÂAmerican War.
Ministro Zenteno was long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of . Displacement was . Four boilers fed steam to two vertical triple-expansion steam engines rated at a total of with forced draught and with natural draught, to give a speed of with forced draught.
As a protected cruiser, the ship's vitals were protected by a full-length arched deck of steel armour, thick on the slopes and on the horizontal part of the deck. The ship's conning tower was protected by of armour. The ship's main gun armament consisted of eight 6-in (152 mm) 45-calibre quick-firing guns, with two fore-and-aft on the ship's centreline, and three on each beam. The secondary armament was ten 6-pounder (57mm) guns and four 3-pounder (47mm) guns. The ship was fitted with three 18-inch (450mm) torpedo tubes, one fixed in the bow and the other two on swivelling mounts on the ship's broadside.
Ministro Zenteno attended the Pan-American Conference in Mexico in 1901.
In 1907 she sailed off ValparaÃÂso for a training cruise bound for Punta Arenas, BahÃÂa, La Guaira, Bermudas, Hampton Roads, Annapolis, Newport, Plymouth, Brest, Ferrol, Lisbon, Argel, Malta, Spezia, Genoa, Barcelona, Cartagena, Gibraltar, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn, Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt, Talcahuano, and back to ValparaÃÂso on 8 December 1907.