Francisco Soto Barrientos

Francisco Soto Barrientos (born 10 June 1969) is a Chilean lawyer, academic and politician, close to the Party for Democracy.

He was a member of the Expert Commission created to draft a preliminary constitutional text during the 2023 Chilean constitutional process.

Biography He was born in Santiago in 1969, the son of Mario Soto Moraga and Carmen Barrientos Darraidou. He is married to Daniela Vío Giacaman.

He studied law at Diego Portales University, qualifying as a lawyer in January 2000. In 2001, he completed a Diploma in Philosophical Studies at Alberto Hurtado University. He earned a Master’s degree in Constitutional Law and Public Institutions from Diego Portales University in 2006.

In 2010, he obtained a PhD in Law, with a specialization in Constitutional Law and Political Science, from the University of Barcelona. In 2015, he completed a Postdoctorate in Law at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Professional career Soto has worked in the public, private and academic sectors. From 1997 to 1998, he was a paralegal at Urzúa Basaure law firm. Until 2000, he worked as a researcher for the Youth and Citizenship Program of Fundación IDEAS.

From 2000 to 2008, he was head of the Civil Society Strengthening Program at the Ministry General Secretariat of Government. From 2008 to 2010, he led the Training and Technological Assistance Program for Artisanal Mining at the Ministry of Mining.

From October 2015 to July 2017, he served on the Citizens’ Observers Council for the Constitutional Process, and, FROM November 2021 to April 2022, he was part of the Technical Secretariat for Popular Participation in the Constitutional Convention.

Since 2010, he has been associate professor in the Department of Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile, and in 2018 became Director of Research at the same faculty. He has published several academic works on constitutional law and other research areas.

Constitutional process In January 2023, he was appointed by the Senate of Chile as a member of the Expert Commission, established by Law No. 21.533, responsible for preparing a draft for a new Constitution to be submitted to the Constitutional Council. Within the commission, he joined the Subcommission on Political System, Constitutional Reform and Form of State.