Clemira Pacheco Rivas

Clemira Hugolina Pacheco Rivas (born 5 May 1981) is a Chilean politician who served as deputy.

During the years her husband served as mayor (1992–2008), she collaborated in social initiatives related to child welfare, domestic violence prevention, citizen security, youth recreation and community health, and led an NGO focused on training in the fisheries sector and local development. She is the daughter of Alfonso Pacheco and Hugolina Rivas.

She is married to René Osvaldo Carvajal Zúñiga, who served as mayor of Coronel for four consecutive terms (1992–2008). She is the mother of four daughters: Rayen, Daniela, Antonia and Ignacia.

Professional career She pursued higher education at the University of Concepción, where she studied Special Basic Education Pedagogy. She later completed a Master’s degree in Social Policies and undertook further training in Educational Unit Management and social project development at the same institution.

After graduating, she worked in a Mapuche community in Cholchol, in the Araucanía Region. In 1986, she was part of the founding group of the NGO Centro de Promoción de Desarrollo Popular (Cepdepo), which trained youth monitors to support schoolchildren in Coronel and Lota and organized community kitchens and early childhood education initiatives.

Between 1986 and 1995, she carried out training activities with women on sexual and reproductive rights and worked with LGBT groups and sex workers. She later served as principal of the subsidized private school San Pedro de Coronel and directed Radio Matías La Nueva.

Political career During her university years, she participated in parish and student movements and in human rights advocacy groups, including the Committee for the Defense of the People’s Rights (Codepu), and was affiliated with the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

As a member of the Socialist Party of Chile, she has held positions at the provincial, regional and national levels and presided over the party’s communal leadership in Coronel.

She served as local campaign coordinator for the presidential campaigns of Patricio Aylwin (1989), Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1993) and Ricardo Lagos (1999), and led parliamentary and mayoral campaign operations in her district.

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, she ran for the Chamber of Deputies representing the Socialist Party in District No. 45, obtaining the highest vote share in the district with 37,448 votes (33.52%).