Bernardo Salinas
Bernardo Salinas Maya (born 20 November 1964) is a Chilean public administrator and politician who serves as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile.
Early life and family
He was born in Santiago on 20 November 1964. He is the son of Belisario Salinas Jorquera, a member of the Communist Party of Chile, and Grimaldina de Jesús Maya. He is an agricultural engineer, with studies validated at the University of Chile in 1993.
Professionally, he has developed a career linked to public administration and rural development in the Coquimbo Region. He worked with the Institute for Agricultural Development (INDAP) from 1997 through various programs supporting small-scale agriculture, productive development, and agricultural technical assistance. He served as the institution's regional director between 2006 and 2010.
He later held positions at the Municipality of La Serena, including director of the Housing Office and director of Community Development (DIDECO). He also worked as a consultant for the United Nations in the development of a strategy for agri-food systems aimed at strengthening institutional frameworks, civil society, and governance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Political career
At the age of 13 he joined the Communist Party of Chile. During the military government of Augusto Pinochet, he lived in exile with his family in Argentina, Sweden, and the Soviet Union. After a period of militancy in the Socialist Party of Chile, he later reconnected with the Communist Party.
He served as coordinator of the National Irrigation Commission (CNR) for the northern macro-zone between 2014 and 2015. In August 2015 he was appointed regional ministerial secretary of Government (Seremi) in the Coquimbo Region, serving until 2018 as regional government spokesperson and coordinator of the executive branch's communication and public policy strategy.
In 2022 he assumed the role of regional representative of the Subsecretariat of Regional and Administrative Development (SUBDERE).
In the parliamentary elections of 16 November 2025 he ran for deputy for the 5th District of the Coquimbo Region (communes of Andacollo, Canela, Combarbalá, Coquimbo, Illapel, La Higuera, La Serena, Los Vilos, Monte Patria, Ovalle, Paihuano, Punitaqui, Río Hurtado, Salamanca, and Vicuña), as an independent candidate supported by the Communist Party of Chile within the Unidad por Chile coalition. He was elected with 3,802 votes, equivalent to 0.82% of the total valid votes cast.