Editing Independent Democratic Union (section)

===Origins (1967–1988)===
It was during the university strikes of the 1960s when [[Jaime Guzmán]], President of the Law Students Union at the [[Pontifical Catholic University of Chile]], who opposed the protests and strikes led by the Christian-democrats and left-wing students- gathered a group of students and founded the ''[[Movimiento Gremial]]'' (Guildist Movement) and ran for the university's Student Union (Federación de Estudiantes) election. The movement quickly became one of the most important in the Catholic University, and later won the presidency of the university's Student Union.

Jaime Guzmán criticized liberal democracy and sought inspiration in authoritarian corporatism, proposing the [[Subsidiarity (Catholicism)|principle of subsidiarity]] and to invigorate intermediate social movements, by the way that these were independent to develop their own specific purposes. Well into the government of [[Salvador Allende]], some young members of the [[National Party (Chile, 1966–94)|National Party]] and the Christian Democrats became part of the Gremialismo Movement of Jaime Guzmán.

Guzmán supported a military [[coup]] against Allende's government, which happened shortly thereafter on September 11, 1973 (''see'': [[Chilean coup of 1973]]). He was a close advisor of General [[Augusto Pinochet]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bicentenariochile.cl/doctos/Chacarillas77.pdf|title=Discurso de Chacarillas (1978)|access-date=2007-10-04|archive-date=2020-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200122023159/http://www.bicentenariochile.cl/doctos/Chacarillas77.pdf|url-status=usurped}}</ref> Guzmán was later appointed a member of the Commission for the Study of the New Constitution, who worded the new constitution promulgated in 1980.

After the 1982 economic crisis, which caused the temporary removal of the "[[Chicago Boys]]" from cabinet, Guzmán moved away from the government and decided to found the movement he desired, establishing it on September 24, 1983, under the name '''Independent Democratic Union Movement''' (Movimiento Unión Demócrata Independiente).

The emerging movement, a supporter of the military government, had (as opposed to the traditional right-wing political groups) a strong empathy with the lower classes, in order to seize from the Marxist left its traditional domain. Amid the growing economic crisis of the time, UDI engaged in empowering leaders in the countryside and peripheral neighbourhoods that would help extend its  influence in the middle and lower classes. One of them was Simon Yévenes, UDI member assassinated by left-wing resistance fighters on April 2, 1986.

On April 29, 1987, the Independent Democratic Union merged with other related movements such as National Union Movement, led by [[Andrés Allamand]], and National Labour Front, led by Sergio Onofre Jarpa, plus some former members and supporters of the National Party and the Christian Democrats, to form the [[National Renewal (Chile)|National Renewal]] party (RN), who managed briefly to unite all the right movements in the country. However, UDI members maintained their own identity in the new party, which caused a crisis in 1988, culminating in the resignation of all former UDI members to National Renewal. Allamand stayed in charge of National Renewal, while Jaime Guzman managed to register a new political party: the '''Independent Democratic Union''' in 1989.