Paulina Núñez Urrutia

Paulina Andrea Núñez Urrutia (born 30 December 1982) is a Chilean lawyer, academic and politician affiliated with the National Renewal (RN) party.

Since 2022, she has served as a member of the Senate of Chile, representing the Antofagasta Region. She previously sat in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile for two consecutive terms, from 2014 to 2022, during which she became noted for her work on transparency, probity and civic participation in public administration.

Within National Renewal, she has held several leadership positions, including vice-president and head of the party’s women’s wing.

Studies and professional career She completed her primary and secondary education at the Instituto Santa María de Antofagasta. Later, she studied law at the Catholic University of the North (UCN), Antofagasta campus. Alongside her studies, from March 2004 to December 2005, she served as a teaching assistant in the Administrative Law course at the Faculty of Law of her university. She resigned on 31 May 2013 to launch her candidacy for the Chamber of Deputies, which was soon endorsed by her party.

In the 2013 parliamentary elections, she was elected deputy for District No. 4, serving the 2014–2018 legislative term. She sat on the Standing Committees on Mining and Energy, National Defence, and Extreme Zones and Chilean Antarctica. Re-elected in 2017 for the new District No. 3, she served until 2022 and chaired the Bicameral Group on Transparency and Probity of the National Congress. Throughout her tenure, she participated in several investigative committees and held internal leadership roles within RN, including vice-president and head of the party’s women’s branch.

In August 2021, Núñez registered her candidacy for the Senate of Chile under the «Chile Podemos Más» coalition, representing the Antofagasta Region for the 2022–2030 term. In the November 2021 elections, she was elected with 15,648 votes (8.36 %). She took office on 11 March 2022 and joined the Standing Committee on Environment and National Assets, as well as the Special Committee on Women and gender equality.