Patricio Aylwin Azócar OMCh (Latin American Spanish pronunciation: [paˈtɾisjo ˈelwin aˈsokaɾ] ⓘ; 26 November 1918 – 19 April 2016) was a Chilean politician from the Christian Democratic Party, lawyer, author, professor and former senator.

An excellent student, he enrolled in the Law School of the University of Chile where he became a lawyer, with the highest distinction, in 1943.

They had five children (his daughter Mariana worked as a minister in subsequent governments) and 14 grandchildren (among them, popular telenovela and film actress Paz Bascuñán).

Distrusting Allende, Aylwin "demanded that the president appoint only military men to his cabinet as proof of his honest intent," which Allende did only partially, and Aylwin "apparently sided with pro-coup forces, believing that the military would restore democracy to the nation.

Later he helped establish the Constitutional Studies Group of 24 to reunite the country's democratic sectors against the dictatorship.

[10] After the plebiscite, he participated in negotiations that led the government and the opposition to agree on 54 constitutional reforms, thereby making possible a peaceful transition from 16 years of dictatorship to democracy.

A new labor law was also enacted in 1990, which expanded trade union rights and collective bargaining[14] while also improving severance pay for workers.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) commissioned Timothy Duke to research into Aylwin’s heritage prior to a state visit in April 1991.

Aylwin had spent most of his life thinking he was of Welsh descent and had initially planned a trip to Cardiff as part of the official United Kingdom visit following his presidential election.

[20] The FCO had also found that further down his lineage, his ancestors were yeoman farmers in Sussex, where Aylwin is quite a common surname.

[22] Aylwin was president of the Corporation for Democracy and Justice, a non-profit organization he founded to develop approaches to eliminating poverty and to strengthen ethical values in politics.

[1] His state funeral was held on 22 April 2016 and was buried at Cementerio General de Santiago in the following days.