Luis Osvaldo Escobar

Luis Osvaldo Escobar Astaburuaga (25 July 1915 – 2 August 2010) was a Chilean surgeon and politician of the Independent Popular Action.

He served as Deputy for the Thirteenth Departamental Group (Cauquenes, Constitución and Chanco) in 1973 until the dissolution of Congress following the military coup.

He was born on 25 July 1915 in Santiago, the son of Manuel Escobar Faúndez and Sara Astaburuaga González. He married María Ladrón de Guevara (who died on 20 June 1945) and, in 1948, married Ana María Cáceres Venegas, with whom he had three children.

He completed his primary schooling at Liceo Luis Amunátegui (1923–1929) and secondary at Liceo de Aplicación (1929–1935), both in Santiago. He studied medicine at the University of Chile, graduating as a medical surgeon in 1948, and financed his studies by working as a Senate shorthand reporter. He later completed a postgraduate course in family planning at Hospital Barros Luco.

He practiced medicine briefly at the hospital in Peumo, later moving to Cauquenes, where he served as a resident physician and director of the maternity ward. From 1942 to 1952, he taught anatomy at the University of Chile and worked as an unpaid surgical physician at Hospital El Salvador in Santiago.

Politically, he began with the founding of the Independent Popular Action (API), serving as regional secretary and provincial campaign director for Salvador Allende’s presidential bid (1969–1970), even hosting the candidate during his tours in Cauquenes.

After the military coup, he went underground and narrowly avoided detention. Later, he lived in near–clandestinity in Santiago while continuing his medical career. He died after a long illness on 2 August 2010.

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