Juan Salvador Guzmán Tapia (Spanish pronunciation: [xwaŋ ɡusˈman ˈtapja]; 22 April 1939 – 22 January 2021) was a Chilean judge.

He was the first Chilean judge to lead investigations and prosecute Augusto Pinochet for violations of human rights during his dictatorship between 1973 and 1990.

As a special prosecutor, he used novel legal strategies to hold Pinochet and members of his military regime accountable for the killings and human rights violations during this period.

[1] His father Juan Guzmán Cruchaga was a diplomat and a poet, while his mother was involved in the arts, having been trained in theater and sculpture.

[2] During his stay in Paris, he witnessed the events of May 68 and met his wife, Inés Watine Dubrulle, the daughter of a World War II French Resistance fighter.

[2][3] Speaking of his early years as a sheltered conservative, Guzmán said that he and his family initially cheered as Pinochet overthrew democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende in a military coup.

[2] Guzmán was amongst the first few judges to lead the investigation and prosecution of Pinochet for killings and other human rights violations undertaken by his regime between 1973 and 1990.

[2] Under the judicial system in force in Chile at the time, judges had both investigative and prosecutorial responsibilities in addition to presiding over the courts.

[2] When democracy returned to Chile in the early 1990s, the true extent of the human rights abuses by Pinochet and his military regime started to surface.

However, Pinochet was finally deemed unfit for trial and returned home to Chile in March 2000 after 17 months of house arrest in London.

[7][2][8] In December 2000, Guzmán formally charged Pinochet for kidnapping during his 1973–1990 dictatorship, and questioned him for two hours in January 2001 after doctors said he was fit to undergo interrogation.