Jaime Castillo Velasco

Jaime Castillo Velasco (14 March 1914 – 29 October 2003) was a Chilean 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 in Paris.

During the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva, 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 a professor at the University of Chile and the Catholic University, School of Political Science; directed the policy and Spirit magazine; chaired the Institute of Political Studies and Training (IDEP), was a member of the World Ideological Commission of the Christian Democrats and the founder and director of the Latin American Secretariat of Human Rights.

He was forced into exile in Caracas following the coup d'état of 11 September 1973 that overthrew President Salvador Allende. 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 during the de facto government of General Augusto Pinochet. In that capacity, he defended several human rights cases, including cases involving Chilean exiles or the murder of Orlando Letelier. Following the restoration of democracy, President Patricio Aylwin appointed him to the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the "Rettig Commission"), which, on 9 February 1991, published the "Rettig Report", analysing the human rights violations committed during the military regime.

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