Macarena Lobos
Chilean politician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Macarena del Carmen Lobos Palacios (born 25 November 1971) is a Chilean politician who currently serves as General Secretariat of the Presidency.[1] She also was undersecretary.[2]
Macarena Lobos | |
|---|---|
| |
| General Secretariat of the Presidency | |
| In office 4 March 2025 – 11 March 2026 | |
| President | Gabriel Boric |
| Preceded by | Álvaro Elizalde |
| Succeeded by | José García Ruminot |
| General Undersecretary of Presidency | |
| In office 11 March 2022 – 4 March 2025 | |
| President | Gabriel Boric |
| Preceded by | Máximo Pavez |
| Succeeded by | Nicolás Facuse |
| Undersecretary of Social Welfare | |
| In office 5 September 2017 – 11 March 2018 | |
| President | Michelle Bachelet |
| Preceded by | Alejandro Micco |
| Succeeded by | Francisco Moreno Guzmán |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 November 1971 |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Lawyer |
She was born in the Santiago commune of Providencia on 25 November 1971, the daughter of Aliro Humberto Lobos Díaz and María Soledad Amelia Palacios Blanco. She is a lawyer and holds a law degree from the University of Chile,[3] and also holds a postgraduate diploma in advanced studies as well as a doctorate in law from the Complutense University of Madrid.[3]
Public career
In the mid-1990s, she worked as a teaching assistant in Labour Law at the University of Chile.[3]
From 1998 to 2006, she worked as an advisor on labour and social security matters at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security during the governments of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and Ricardo Lagos.[3]
Subsequently, from 2006 to 2010, she served as a legal adviser to the Budget Directorate (Dipres), part of the Ministry of Finance, during the first government of Michelle Bachelet.[3] She later held the position of executive secretary of Cieplan’s “Legislative Advisory Programme”, advising several members of Congress on the processing of major legislative initiatives related to socio-economic issues.[3]
From March 2014, she served as legislative coordinator for the Minister of Finance, leading the strategy to advance the various bills promoted by that ministry. In September 2017, she was appointed Undersecretary of Finance, a position she held until March 2018. After leaving government, she joined the advisory team of the Council for Parliamentary Allowances of the National Congress of Chile. At the same time, she has served as a lecturer in the Master’s programme in Public Policy at the School of Government of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC),[3] and as a specialist panelist on regulatory issues for the Radio Pauta programme Pauta de Negocios.[3]
In January 2020—during the second government of Sebastián Piñera—she was appointed by the Ministry of Finance to join, along with other experts, the Public Expenditure Commission, a body which, after one year of work, proposed a set of measures aimed at improving the transparency, quality and impact of public spending.[4]
In 2021, she ran as an independent candidate for a seat representing district no. 10 (covering the communes of Santiago, Ñuñoa, Macul, La Granja, Providencia and San Joaquín) in the Chilean Constitutional Convention, as part of the Non-Neutral Independents (INN) electoral pact, but was not elected in the elections held on 15 and 16 May.[3]
In July 2021, she also coordinated the policy programme team of the presidential candidate of the New Social Pact coalition, Yasna Provoste (PDC).[5] In that capacity, she participated in the programme convergence agreement with the policy team of presidential candidate Gabriel Boric—during the second round of the election—on fiscal, tax and social security matters.[2]
At the end of January 2022, she was announced as Undersecretary General of the Presidency by then president-elect Gabriel Boric (following his victory in the December election), assuming office in March of that year with the start of the Boric administration.[5] Between 4 and 10 March 2025, she served as Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency on an acting basis, following the resignation of Minister Álvaro Elizalde, who was appointed Minister of the Interior and Public Security after the resignation of former minister Carolina Tohá. On 10 March 2025, she was confirmed as the permanent office holder.[6]