Alejandro Jiliberto Zepeda

Alejandro Jiliberto Zepeda (3 September 1929 – 11 June 2007) was a Chilean lawyer and socialist politician.

Biography Born in Coquimbo, he was the son of Alejandro Jiliberto and Elba Zepeda. He married Alicia Herrera Rivera in Santiago in 1954, with whom he had four children.

He completed his studies at the Liceo de La Serena and the University of Chile, graduating as a lawyer in 1954. He later traveled to Europe and South America, including Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

He served as national lawyer for the Ferroviary Industrial Federation and the company PARFO. He was president of the Feria del Mar Commission (1963) and legal secretary of the Coquimbo Intendancy (1965).

Political career A member of the Socialist Party, he was elected councilor of La Serena from 1960 to 1963.

He was elected deputy for the 4th departmental grouping (La Serena, Coquimbo, Elqui, Ovalle, Illapel, and Combarbalá) for the 1973–1977 term, participating in the permanent commission on Labor and Social Security. The military coup of 11 September 1973 suspended the National Congress, ending his parliamentary functions.

Exile and later years As a socialist leader in hiding, he was detained and tortured by agents of the military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. Thanks to a writ of amparo filed by his wife, magistrate Alicia Herrera, he avoided execution by half an hour. He was transferred to different detention centers while awaiting the appeal process, which was ultimately rejected, and in February 1974 he was sent to Dawson Island Concentration Camp.

From exile in Bucharest, his wife petitioned European leaders, the Vatican, and the United Nations, testifying to the UN Special Commission on Chile. Due to these efforts, he was released and reunited with his family in Romania. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Berlin, East Germany, where he joined the leadership of the Chilean Socialist Party in exile until 1979.

He later settled in Spain, establishing a law firm and advising the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) on municipal politics.

In 2003, he relocated to Colombia, where he died in 2007 after a serious illness.