Jaime Castillo Velasco was a Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an politician who served as president and vice-president of the Christian Democrat Party on several occasions.

Born in Santiago, he studied at the Liceo Alemán before progressing to a law degree at the University of Chile, from where he graduated in 1935. He later studied philosophy at both the University of Chile and the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

During the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva

Eduardo Frei Montalva

Eduardo Frei Montalva was a Chilean political leader of world stature. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970...

, Jaime Castillo was appointed to serve as the Minister of Land and Human Settlement and, later, as Minister of Justice (1966 to 1968).

He was forced into exile in Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

 following the coup d'état of 11 September 1973 that overthrew President

President of Chile

The President of the Republic of Chile is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Chile. The President is responsible of the government and state administration...

 Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....

. That did not prevent him, however, from founding the Chilean Human Rights Commission (Comisión Chilena de Derechos Humanos) in 1978, an agency that worked to defend human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 during the de facto

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

government of General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

. In that capacity, he defended several human rights cases, including cases involving Chilean exiles or the murder of Orlando Letelier

Orlando Letelier

Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...

. Following the restoration of democracy, President Patricio Aylwin

Patricio Aylwin

Patricio Aylwin Azócar was the first president of Chile after its return to democratic rule in 1990, following the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.- Early life :...

 appointed him to the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the "Rettig Commission"), which, on 9 February 1991, published the "Rettig Report

Rettig Report

The Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a 1991 report by a commission designated by then President Patricio Aylwin encompassing human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military rule...

", analysing the human rights violations committed during the military regime.

Publications

• En defensa de Maritain (Santiago, Editorial del Pacífico 1949)
• El problema comunista (Santiago, Editorial del Pacífico, 1955)
• Las fuentes de la Democracia Cristiana (Santiago, Editorial del Pacífico, 1968)
• Los caminos de la revolución (Santiago, Editorial del Pacífico, 1972)
• Teoría y práctica de la Democracia Cristiana (Santiago, Editorial del Pacífico, 1973)
• Democracia y Derechos Humanos (Santiago, Icheh, 1986)
• El humanismo integral de Jaques Maritain (Santiago, Icheh, 1987)
• Violencia y Derechos Humanos (Santiago, Icheh, 1993)
• ¿Hubo en Chile violaciones a los Derechos Humanos? Comentarios a las memorias del General Pinochet (Santiago, Icheh, 1995)
• La teoría de la abstracción en el empirismo inglés (Santiago, Rumbos, 1999)

Source

The earliest version of this article was translated, with minor modifications, from the corresponding article on the Spanish-language Wikipedia

Spanish Wikipedia

The Spanish Wikipedia is a Spanish-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia. It currently has articles. Started in May 2001, it reached 100,000 articles on March 8, 2006. Currently, it is the 6th largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, having surpassed Polish...

.