Ricardo Celis Araya

Ricardo Celis Araya (born 11 July 1955) is a Chilean politician who serves as parliamentary.

Early life and education Ricardo Patricio Celis Araya was born on 11 July 1955 in Valparaíso. He is the son of Luis Celis Vargas and Fresia Lastenia Araya Díaz. He is married to Lilian Beatriz Fernández, and has four children (three daughters and one son).

He completed his secondary education at Colegio Rubén Castro in Viña del Mar. He later studied medicine at the University of Chile, qualifying as a physician and surgeon. He subsequently specialized in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of La Frontera.

Celis completed further postgraduate training in gynecological endoscopy at the University of Perugia in Italy and at the University of Clermont Auvergne in France. He also holds a diploma in health management from the Diego Portales University.

Medical and academic career Celis has developed most of his professional medical career at the Hernán Henríquez Aravena Hospital in Temuco, where he worked primarily until 10 March 2018. He later continued working as a gynecologist at Hospital de Temuco.

He has served as a member of the governing board of the University of La Frontera and, as of the present, is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the same institution.

Political career Celis was a member of the Party for Democracy (PPD), serving as its regional president in Araucanía Region between 2002 and 2003.

He began his public career during the administration of President Ricardo Lagos. Between 2000 and 2003, he served as director of the Araucanía Sur Health Service. From 7 April 2003 to 11 March 2006, he held the position of Intendant of the Araucanía Region.

In the 2008 municipal elections, he ran for mayor of Temuco, obtaining 35,695 votes (41.03%), but was not elected. He later ran as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in the 2009 parliamentary elections for District No. 50 in the Araucanía Region, receiving 22,330 votes (18.60%), without being elected.

In the 2012 municipal elections, Celis was elected as a municipal councillor (concejal) for Temuco, obtaining the highest vote share in the municipality with 13,248 votes (54.78%).

In the 2017 parliamentary elections, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Chile representing the 23rd District of the Araucanía Region (including communes such as Temuco, Padre Las Casas, Villarrica, Pucón, and Nueva Imperial), as a member of the PPD on the La Fuerza de la Mayoría list. He obtained 16,335 votes, corresponding to 7.27% of the valid votes cast.

For the 2021 parliamentary elections, the PPD chose not to nominate him again in the same district.