Catalina Ilona Io Pérez Salinas (born 1990) is a Chilean lawyer, politician, and activist. She currently serves as a member of the

Chamber of Deputies of Chile The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house of Chile's Bicameralism, bicameral National Congress of Chile, Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current Chilean Constitution of 1980, ...

, representing the District 3 for the 2022–2026 term, and from January 2019 to June 2021 was president of the

Democratic Revolution Democratic Revolution () was a Chilean centre-left to left-wing political party, founded in 2012 by some of the leaders of the 2011 Chilean student protests, most notably the current Deputy Giorgio Jackson, who is also the most popular public ...

party.

Biography

Catalina Pérez Salinas was born in 1990 in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, to Ricardo Pérez Miranda and María Ángela Salinas Meza, who were exiled by the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

. Her family returned to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

in 1994, settling in the city of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. Once claimed by Bolivia follo ...

. She attended primary and secondary school from 1997 to 2006 at the Liceo Experimental Artístico in Antofagasta, and she completed her studies in 2007–2008 at the Colegio Academia Tarapacá in

Iquique Iquique () is a port List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the At ...

. During the

2006 student protests in Chile The 2006 student protests in Chile (also known as the Penguins' Revolution or The March of the Penguins, because of the students' uniform) were a series of ongoing student voice protests carried out by high school students across Chile (from late ...

, she served as coordinator of secondary students for Antofagasta and one of the movement's regional spokespeople. She then enrolled as a law student at

Catholic University of the North Catholic University of the North (Spanish: ''Universidad Católica del Norte'' (UCN)) is a university in Chile. It is part of the Chilean Traditional Universities. It is located in Antofagasta, Chile. The Catholic University of the North was fo ...

, graduating as a lawyer in 2017. While at Catholic University of the North, she participated in the 2011–2013 Chilean student protests, representing the university's Faculty of Humanities. She later became the school's Student Center president.

Political career

Pérez Salinas first became involved in politics at age 13, as an activist with the Communist Youth of Chile. In 2014, she joined the

party. In the

2017 Chilean general election General elections were held in Chile on 19 November 2017 to elect the president, all 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies, 23 of the 43 members of the Senate and 278 members of regional boards. All elected members would serve a four-year term, ...

, she ran as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies to represent District 3, as part of the Broad Front coalition. She was elected with 3.76% of the vote to serve a term from 2018–2022. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, she joined the Permanent Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, as well as the Interior, Nationality, Citizenship, and Regionalization Committee. She is part of the Broad Front parliamentary committee. In January 2019, she was elected president of the Democratic Revolution party, a position she held until June 2021. She won reelection for a second four-year term in the

2021 Chilean general election General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect a President of Chile, president to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate ...

. In June 2023, she announced her suspension from the board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies, where she served as vice president, due to questions over multimillion-dollar contracts between a foundation linked to her then-partner Daniel Andrade, "Fundación Democracia Viva," and the Antofagasta Ministry of Housing, led by her cabinet member Carlos Contreras. This situation led to a political scandal called the Convenios case, which involved a series of investigations of agreements between Chilean state entities and private non-governmental organizations. On July 6, Pérez Salinas was given a year's suspension from membership in the Democratic Revolution party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez Salinas, Catalina 1990 births Living people 21st-century Chilean lawyers Chilean feminists Chilean communists Chilean women activists Women members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile People from Antofagasta Communist Party of Chile politicians Democratic Revolution politicians Frente Amplio (Chile) politicians Chilean diaspora Catholic University of the North alumni 21st-century Chilean women politicians Deputies of the LV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Deputies of the LVI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile 21st-century Chilean women lawyers