Jaime Guzmán

Hernández (also known as "Commander Ramiro") was the only one arrested and tried for the murder of Guzmán, but after serving less than three years in a Chilean prison he escaped and sought refuge in Cuba. In 2002 Hernández was arrested in Brazil for the kidnapping of Brazilian businessman Washington Olivetto. He is currently serving a sentence in Chile.

Guzmán died on 1 April 1991, shot at the exit of the Catholic University where he was a professor of constitutional law. He was driven to a nearby hospital and died three hours later from several bullet wounds. His assassination was carried out by members of the far-left urban guerrilla movement Frente Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR), Ricardo Palma Salamanca and Raúl Escobar Poblete, however the operation is believed to have been planned by the leaders of the movement Galvarino Apablaza, Mauricio Hernández Norambuena and Juan Gutiérrez Fischmann. who had been planning the murder of Guzman since the 1980s.

The assassination of Guzmán prompted the Aylwin administration to create the intelligence organization La Oficina on April 26, 1991, to neutralize violent left-wing groups that had not accepted the premises of the Chilean transition to democracy.

After the military coup, Guzmán became a close advisor to General Augusto Pinochet and a highly influential policymaker in Chile at this time. Already two days after the coup Guzmán was tasked to study the creation of a new constitution. Later he was summoned by Pinochet to take part in the Comisión Ortúzar charged with drafting the new constitution. He also was a key participant in the drafting of Pinochet's Chacarillas speech of 1977, one of the founding texts of the military regime.

Guzmán declared to have a "negative opinion" of National Intelligence Directorate director Manuel Contreras. According to him this lead him into various "inconviniencies and difficulties". From its side the National Intelligence Directorate identified Guzmán as an intelligent and manipulative actor in a secret 1976 memorandum. The same document posits Guzmán manipulated Pinochet and sought ultimately to displace him from power, to lead himself a government in collaboration with Jorge Alessandri. The National Intelligence Directorate spied on Guzmán and kept watch on his everyday activities.

From about the time of 1973 Chilean coup d'état Guzmán became familiarized with the ideas of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, this thanks to his contacts with Chicago Boys such as Miguel Kast.

During his university years he founded the Movimiento Gremial Universitario, a conservative political movement that in 1968 won the presidency of the student union of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, maintaining an almost uninterrupted leadership until NAU (Nueva Acción Universitaria), a left wing group, became majority since 2009. The Movimiento Gremial quickly expanded through the main universities in Chile.

In 1963, only 16 years old, he was accepted to study law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, graduating in 1968 with highest honours. He was awarded the Monseñor Carlos Casanueva prize for being the best student in his class.

At the age of 12 Jaime Guzmán participated in the political campaign of Jorge Alessandri distributing propaganda. About this Guzmán recognizes he had «a close ideological and personal proximity with Jorge Alessandri», he adds that «he was the person who influenced me most in my interest for politics. His presidential candidacy in 1958 and his presidency, between my 12 and 18 years, made me admire him as a superior man».

Jaime Guzmán was born in Santiago to Jorge Guzmán Reyes, who was a sports leader of the Catholic University, and Carmen Errázuriz Edwards, who was a travel agent for tourists in Europe. Between 1951 and 1962 he studied in the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Santiago, where at a young age he showed interest in literature and strong leadership qualities. Already during his senior year he began to show interest in political life. An excellent student, he graduated from high school at the age of 15.

Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz (June 28, 1946 – April 1, 1991) was a Chilean constitutional law professor, speechwriter and member and doctrinal founder of the conservative Independent Democrat Union party. In the 1960s he opposed the University Reform and became an avid organizer of the Gremialist movement. He opposed President Salvador Allende and later became a close advisor of Pinochet and his dictatorship. A professor of Constitutional Law, he played an important part in the drafting of the 1980 Chilean Constitution. He served briefly as senator during the transition to democracy before being assassinated in 1991 by members of the communist urban guerrilla Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front.