Gabriel Osorio

Gabriel Ignacio Osorio Vargas (born 21 May 1983) is a Chilean lawyer, academic, and politician who is a member of the Socialist Party of Chile. He specializes in constitutional and electoral law and has worked as a government legal adviser, university professor, and political adviser. He was a member of the Expert Commission established during the 2023 Chilean constitutional process and has subsequently represented political figures and parties in constitutional and electoral proceedings.

Early life and education

Osorio was born in Santiago, Chile, on 21 May 1983, the son of Mario Osorio Bustamante and Mónica Vargas Gajardo. He attended the Liceo Experimental Manuel de Salas for his primary and secondary education. He studied law at the Central University of Chile, graduating as a lawyer in April 2010. In 2016, he obtained a master's degree in law with a specialization in public law from the University of Chile.

Osorio has taught at several Chilean universities. At Adolfo Ibáñez University, he has taught electoral law and electoral justice; at the University of Chile, he has been a guest professor in a postgraduate diploma in strategic litigation involving fundamental rights; at Andrés Bello University, he has taught political institutions and organic constitutional law; and at the Central University of Chile, he has taught constitutional electoral law.

From 2011 to 2014, he worked as a lawyer at the firm Zúñiga Campos Abogados. He subsequently became a founding partner of Osorio Vargas & Abogados.

In 2014, Osorio worked as a lawyer in the Legal Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security. From 2015 to 2018, during the second government of President Michelle Bachelet, he served as a legal adviser in the Legislative Legal Division of the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency.

Osorio has also worked as a legal adviser to the Socialist Party. In 2021, he headed the party's legal advisory team for its delegation to the Constitutional Convention, whose members were elected in that year's constitutional convention elections. He later became an adviser to the Socialist Party leadership during negotiations over the second constitutional process and was described as combining expertise in public law and electoral law.

Constitutional processes

In November 2019, Osorio represented the Socialist Party on the technical committee that drafted the constitutional reform that became Law No. 21,200, which established the procedure for the first constitutional process following the 2019–2020 Chilean protests.

He subsequently participated in the drafting of Law No. 21,533, which established the institutional framework for the second constitutional process. On 25 January 2023, the Senate appointed him as one of its 12 members of the Expert Commission, a 24-member body tasked with preparing a preliminary draft constitution for consideration by the Constitutional Council.

The Expert Commission was installed on 6 March 2023. Osorio served on its Subcommission on Political System, Constitutional Reform and Form of State.

In January 2025, Osorio was retained by former senator Isabel Allende Bussi and her family in connection with the government's abandoned attempt to purchase the former residence of President Salvador Allende. He subsequently represented Allende before the Constitutional Court in proceedings concerning requests for her removal from the Senate.

That same month, he represented Maite Orsini, a member of the Broad Front, before the party's regional tribunal in disciplinary proceedings that could have resulted in her expulsion from the party.

In November 2024, Osorio represented Miguel Concha in proceedings concerning the recount of votes from the 2024 municipal election for mayor of Peñalolén. The recount had been ordered after Concha defeated Claudia Mora by 123 votes.

In September 2025, Osorio represented a group of governing parties and the Christian Democratic Party before the Election Certification Tribunal in a challenge to Senator Ximena Rincón's candidacy for a third consecutive Senate term in the Maule Region. The tribunal upheld the challenge by a vote of three to two, ruling that Rincón was ineligible to seek another consecutive term under the constitutional limits on parliamentary reelection.

Works

  • Partidos políticos: Historia institucional y dogmática jurídica (2018)

See Also

Osvaldo Rengifo

Osvaldo Rengifo Vial (10 September 1843 – 1906) was a Chilean lawyer, academic and politician who...