Chile's Centre for Social Studies (Spanish: "Centro de Estudios Sociales", CESOC) was founded in Rome, Italy, in 1984, preceded in 1974 by its publication "ChileAmérica". The founders were mainly left-wing Chilean politicians close to the government of ousted President Salvador Allende, and who had fled into exile following the 1973 coup d'état by general Augusto Pinochet. Among them, the most prominent were Pinochet victim Bernardo Leighton and José Antonio Viera-Gallo Quesney, who later became the first post-Pinochet president of Chile's Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of parliament) in the government of Patricio Aylwin.