Juan Guzmán Tapia

Juan Guzmán Tapia was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, on April 22, 1939. The only son of chilean diplomat, poet and author Juan Guzmán Cruchaga and Raquel Tapia Caballero, he has chilean nationality, though he spent his childhood in Colombia, Venezuela and USA, due to his father's work as consul. Of Basque descent, he studied law at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and obtain a scholarship to study law philosophy in Paris, France. There he witnessed the May 1968 events in France, and meet his wife, Inés Watine. He returned to Chile in August, 1970 to work as a judge in Panguipulli. He is fluent in french, so he got a small role as a uruguayan journalist in Costa-Gavras film State of Siege (1972), filmed in Chile. As a catholic, he didn't support President Salvador Allende, though Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia is notorious for his life work on bringing justice to the victims of human right violations during Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship, trying in various occasions to prosecute Pinochet himself.