Bernardino Guerra Cofré

Bernardino Segundo Guerra Cofré (21 March 1916 – 21 December 1975) was a Chilean commercial engineer and politician who served as deputy.

He studied at the Commercial Institute of Arica and later completed several correspondence courses with the University of Chile, obtaining the title of Commercial Engineer in 1941.

He began his professional career as an employee of the State Railways (1936–1957) and later with the Arica–La Paz Railway (1957–1963). In this profession, he assumed trade union leadership among railway workers and employees. He became president of the Railway Employees’ Association and, in 1968, served as Secretary of Labor Conflicts of the CUT in Arica.

Biography He soon joined the Liberal Party, eventually becoming its president in Barros Arana. In 1956 he served as councilman (regidor) of Arica. The northern liberals put him forward as a candidate for Deputy representing Arica, Iquique, and Pisagua, and he was elected for the 1957–1961 term. During this period, he sat on the permanent commissions of Mining and Industry, Economy and Commerce, Finance and Public Works, Interior Government, Colonization, Agriculture, Labor and Social Security, and National Defense.

He participated in the Special Commission on Telephones in 1959 and the Special Commission on Nitrate in 1961. He was also a member of the Investigative Commission into the events that occurred at the State Railways Workshop in San Bernardo in 1958.

In 1961 he was re-elected Deputy for the 1961–1965 term, serving on the Commissions of Economy, Commerce, Roads and Public Works, Housing, and Mining and Industry. In his capacity as Deputy, he traveled to Paraguay as part of a delegation led by Senator Edgardo Barrueto.

Away from Congress during the 1965–1969 term, he dedicated himself to social activities, serving as vice president of the Arica Football Association and honorary president of several mutual aid and sports institutions in Iquique.

He took part in the founding of the National Party in 1966, created through the merger of liberals and conservatives. He returned to the Chamber of Deputies for the 1969–1973 term, representing the same departmental grouping, and was a member of the Commissions on Economy, Commerce, Housing, and Urban Development.