Denise Pascal

Denise Pascal Allende (born 19 July 1940) is a Chilean politician who served as a parliamentary from 2010 to 2018.

Biography Pascal Allende was born in Valparaíso on 19 July 1940. She is the daughter of Gastón Pascal Lyon and Laura Allende Gossens, sister of President Salvador Allende and sister of Andrés Pascal Allende, co-founder and secretary general of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). She is also cousin of Isabel Allende Bussi.

She is married to Giorgio Raúl Solimano Cantuarias and is the mother of two children.

Professional career Between 1966 and 1970, she worked on landscape design architectural projects at the firm Sociedad de Arquitectos Castillo, San Martín y Pascal. From 1970 to 1973, she was responsible for the Peripheral Clinics Plan at the Hospital Facilities Construction Company.

Following the 1973 coup, she went into exile in Mexico, where she served between 1973 and 1977 as head of the Department of Social Promotion of the Fideicomiso Comandante Lázaro Cárdenas in Mexico City, and later worked with the Subsecretariat of Forestry Development on community recovery projects.

Between 1979 and 1984, she studied Political Science in Havana, Cuba. She later settled in Argentina, where between 1985 and 1989 she worked as a project analyst for community infrastructure initiatives supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, the Secretariat of Housing and Environmental Planning, and the United Nations Development Programme.

After returning to Chile, she worked at Turismo Apolo S.A. (1990–1994) and then served as Governor of Melipilla Province in the Santiago Metropolitan Region from 1994 to 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, she led the Hacienda Los Cobres de Loncha project in Alhué under the Corporate Sustainable Development Management of Codelco.

Political career Pascal Allende entered politics in 1962 as a member of the Youth of the Socialist Party of Chile (PS), remaining active until 1970. After the 1973 coup, she continued her political work in exile in Mexico, participating in activities aimed at restoring democracy in Chile.

She returned to Chile in 1988 and between 1989 and 1990 served as vice president and president of the Broad Party of the Socialist Left (PAIS). In 1991, she participated in the re-legalization of the PS.

From 1992 to 1998, she was a member of its Central Committee, Electoral Secretariat and Political Commission. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Vice President for Women within the Socialist Party, joining the party's executive board.