Ministry of the Interior and Public Security

Undersecretary Monsalve is a doctor and politician born in Coronel on July 9, 1965.  He is the son of Manuel Monsalve and Graciela del Carmen Benavides, is married and has two daughters. He went to primary school at public school N°54 Rosita Renard in Coronel and secondary at Liceo A-49 Antonio Salamanca Morales, also in Coronel.

He studied medicine at the Universidad de Concepción, School of Medicine, where he graduated third in his class as a surgeon. He furthered his studies in social and public management.

He was a physician in the municipality of Los Álamos (Biobío Region), where he was appointed director of the Consultorio (public health clinic)  and head of the Municipal Public Health Department.

A member of the Partido Socialista de Chile, he began his political career when he was elected councilman in the municipality of Los Álamos.  During this period he presided over the provincial board of directors of the PS and was part of the party’s regional leadership.

In 2000, then-Health Minister Michelle Bachelet named him director of the Arauco Public Health Service. Later, in 2006, he was elected deputy for the former District 46 in the Biobío Region, where he was reelected three times. Until March 10, he was deputy for the new District 21 of the municipality of the Lota and the Arauco and Biobío provinces.

Francisca Perales Flores is a 37-year-old biochemistry civil engineer with a degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, PUCV.

She was head of the Department of Community Development (DIDECO) during the first term of Valparaíso Mayor Jorge Sharp, highlighting during her administration the reactivation of the neighborhood councils. She also worked in the Finance Department of that municipality.

Prior to that, she was in charge of projects at the Regional Center for Food and Health Studies (CREAS), where she provided support in project formulation and management.

She was a student leader and vice president of the Interim Board of the Student Federation of the PUCV,  position from which she led the volunteer work in the upper sectors of the Placeres and Rodelillo hills after the fire that destroyed 284 houses in Valparaíso.

She was a member in the regional leadership of the Movimiento Autonomista, playing an important role in the fusion with other groups, founding Convergencia Social, a party which she was vice president of between 2019 and 2022, after being reelected in 2020.

As an active member of Convergencia Social, she has participated in organizations such as Frente Femenista and was one of the founders of the Abrecaminos initiative.

Undersecretary Vergara studied political science at the University of Portland, USA, and has a master’s degree in public affairs from The Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). He has a master’s in politics from California State University, Long Beach and he pursued advanced studies in drug policy and human rights at the CEU in Budapest, Hungary and Oxford Analytica.

He worked on major disarmament processes in Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also taught at the Uganda Martyrs University.

He is editor and coauthor of the book “Chile and Drugs” and coauthor of “From repression to regulation: Proposals for drug policy reform”. He also has numerous publications in magazines, academic journals and indexed publications.

Throughout his career he has presented proposals on security policies before the Mexican congress, the OAS, UNASUR, the European Parliament and Commission, and universities in the United States and Europe where he emphasized the relation between inequality, gender and security.

Between 2015 and 2018 he was in charge of the Public Safety Division of the Interior Ministry and later became executive director of Fundación Chile 21, where he formed the largest network of municipalities in terms of prevention and security.

He founded the NGOs Asuntos del Sur (Southern Affairs) and the Observatorio Latinoamericano de Políticas de Drogas y Seguridad Humana (Latin American Observatory for Drug and Human Safety Policies).

He is also a member of the Organized Crime Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean.

On March 11, 2022, he took office as Crime Prevention Undersecretary.