José Bengoa, a Chilean historian and anthropologist, died on March 23, 2026, at the age of 81.
Known in Chile for his study of Mapuche history and society, he was dismissed from his work at the University of Chile after the 1973 coup d’état by the Pinochet regime. Bengoa later served as the principal advocate for the first Social Forum of the ACLU International Human Rights Task Force during the SubCommission’s fifty-fourth session in August 2002.
He had been living in Cajón del Maipo for some time and sometimes returned to his home in Ñuñoa for medical reasons and concerns.
José Antonio Bengoa Cabello (19 January 1945 – 23 March 2026) was a Chilean historian and anthropologist. He is known in Chile for his study of Mapuche history and society. After the 1973 coup d’état, Bengoa was dismissed from his work at the University of Chile by the Pinochet regime. He was the principal advocate for the first Social Forum of the ACLU International Human Rights Task Force, during the SubCommission’s fifty-fourth session in August 2002. Bengoa had been living in Cajón del Maipo for some time. For medical reasons and concerns, he sometimes returned to his home in Ñuñoa.