Edmundo Pérez Zujovic

He served as Minister of State during the government of president Eduardo Frei Montalva, in the administration he led the Public Works and Interior portfolios.

[1] In 1969 he was accused by the left-wing opposition of being the main person responsible for the Puerto Montt massacre – the death of eleven residents at the hands of Carabineros de Chile during an eviction procedure for an illegal land occupation.

On June 8, 1971, during the government of socialist president Salvador Allende, he was assassinated by the far-left armed group Vanguardia Organizada del Pueblo (VOP) in retaliation for that massacre.

While no one knows if he ordered police to shoot, he did approve the removal of settlers from the illegal settlement, reversing his government's previous policy of squatter appeasement.

It appears that he took this action because an opposition politician from the region, a leader of multiple squatter land-grabs, had recently been elected, thereby politicizing settlements in that area.

[9] On June 8, 1971, Pérez was driving to his construction firm office in his Mercedes-Benz, accompanied by his daughter, Maria Angélica, when his car was rammed by three men in another vehicle.

[10] Maria Angelica later identified the gunman as Ronald Rivera Calderon, a member of a leftist terrorist group called Organized Vanguard of the People.