Bernardo Leighton Guzmán (August 16, 1909, Negrete, Bío Bío Province – January 26, 1995,

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

politician and lawyer. He served as

minister of state Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

under three presidents over a 36-year career. Exiled as a critic of

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

's dictatorship, he was targeted for assassination by

Operation Condor Operation Condor (; ) was a campaign of political repression by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, involving intelligence operations, coups, and assassinations of left-wing sympathizers in South America which fo ...

Biography

Early life

Bernardo Leighton was the son of Judge Bernardino Leighton Gajardo and Sinforosa Guzmán Gallegos. He grew up with admiration for his father, a reputed "

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

man". Leighton spent his childhood in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, Chile, in the Province of Bío Bío. In 1921, Leighton moved to Concepción for studies and an apprenticeship in the lay section of a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

. In 1922, he moved to

to work in the local

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

school, St. Ignacio.

Political life

As the student leader at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical univ ...

, he participated in the 1927 riots against

Carlos Ibáñez del Campo General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (; 3 November 1877 – 28 April 1960) was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as president twice, first between 1927 and 1931, and then from 1952 to 1958, serving for 10 years in office. E ...

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

, which was deposed in 1931. During the same year, Leighton was sent by the Minister

Marcial Mora Marcial Mora Miranda (January 12, 1895 – May 13, 1972) was a Chilean politician, and a minister in the cabinet of Chile in 1930s and 1940s. Mora was the president of Central Bank of Chile The Central Bank of Chile () is the central bank of Chi ...

Coquimbo Coquimbo is a port List of cities in Chile, city, Communes of Chile, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo is situated in a valley south of La Serena, Chile, La S ...

to placate the local military riots supported by the population. In 1933, he graduated as a lawyer with a thesis on rural works. In 1937, Leighton was appointed Minister of Labor by

Arturo Alessandri Palma Arturo Fortunato Alessandri Palma (; December 20, 1868 – August 24, 1950) was a Chilean political figure and reformer who served thrice as president of Chile, first from 1920 to 1924, then from March to October 1925, and finally from 1932 to ...

. During this time he founded – along with his friends and associates,

Eduardo Frei Montalva Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva (; 16 January 1911 – 22 January 1982) was a Chileans, Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party (Chile), Christia ...

, Radomiro Tomic, and José Ignacio Palma – the

National Falange The National Falange (, FN) was a Chilean Christian political party that existed between 1935 and 1957. It was the basis of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC); still it is customary to use the expressions "Falange" and "Falangista" to refer to m ...

which merged with the

in 1957. At various times, he served as the party's vice-president. In 1945, he was elected a deputy in the

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, for an

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. Once claimed by Bolivia follo ...

constituency. Leighton also served as

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

in the Videla Government (1946–1952), and as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the Montalva Government (1964–1970). He was re-elected in 1969, and served as legislator until the Chilean coup d'état of 1973.

Exile and assassination attempt

Leighton's criticism of the military dictatorship resulted in his exile from Chile. In February 1974, he and his wife fled to

Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where he started a campaign against

's junta. According to

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

documents released by the

National Security Archive The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy, the N ...

, Italian terrorist and

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...

sympathizer

Stefano Delle Chiaie Stefano Delle Chiaie (13 September 1936 – 10 September 2019) was an Italian neo-fascist terrorist. He was the founder of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', a member of ''Ordine Nuovo'', and founder of Lega nazionalpopolare. He went on to become a wan ...

met with DINA agent

Michael Townley Michael Vernon Townley (born December 5, 1942, in Waterloo, Iowa) is an American-born former agent of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the secret police of Chile during the regime of Augusto Pinochet. In 1978, Townley pleaded gui ...

and Cuban Virgilio Paz Romero in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

in 1975 to prepare for the murder of Bernardo Leighton with the help of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

's secret police. On October 6, 1975, at 8:20 p.m., Leighton and his wife were shot and severely injured. In 1993, A Rome court sentenced Michael Vernon Townley to 18 years imprisonment for attempted murder. Townley had admitted commissioning the murder attempt on behalf of DINA by members of National Vanguard, an Italian right-wing terrorist group. Three members of the group including its leader Stefano Delle Chiaie have been tried for the attack in 1987 and acquitted. Townley's status as a member of witness protection following a previous murder conviction also hindered future cases against him as well. The day after the attack, Leighton's brain was operated on in an attempt to prevent loss of speech; however, his brain was severely damaged. This event brought about the end of his pacification intentions to reunite the various groups opposing Pinochet, including the

leftists Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

. In 1978, the Chilean government allowed Leighton to return to Chile from Italy, and he retired to private life. He died on January 26, 1995, in Santiago, Chile.

Personal life

On August 15, 1940, Leighton married Ana María Fresno Ovalle, a relative of Juan Francisco Fresno. Ana Maria became a paraplegic due to the murder attempt on the couple in October 1975 and died in 2011. The couple had no children.

References

Sources

Carta de Eduardo Frei Montalva a Bernardo Leighton May 22, 1975Carta de Bernardo Leighton Eduardo Frei Montalva June 26, 1975
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leighton, Bernardo 1909 births Chilean shooting survivors 1995 deaths People from Bío Bío Province Chilean people of English descent National Falange politicians Christian Democratic Party (Chile) politicians Ministers of education of Chile Ministers of the interior of Chile Government ministers of Chile Deputies of the XL Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Deputies of the XLVI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Deputies of the XLVII Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Operation Condor Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni Chilean exiles Chilean Roman Catholics