Manuela Royo

Manuela Royo Letelier is a Chilean lawyer and independent politician.
She served as a member of the Constitutional Convention, representing the 23rd electoral district of the Araucanía Region, and acted as coordinator of the Committee on Human Rights.

Biography

Royo was born on 27 December 1982. She is the daughter of Alejandro Royo Díaz and María Luisa Letelier De La Cruz.
She completed her secondary education at Colegio Latinoamericano de Integración. She studied law at Alberto Hurtado University. She holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Law from the University of Talca and is a doctoral candidate at the same institution, where she also teaches constitutional law and Indigenous peoples’ human rights.
She worked at the Public Criminal Defender’s Office of the Araucanía Region from March 2013, including one year at the Mapuche Criminal Defender’s Office. She currently provides free and voluntary legal assistance to communities in Curacautín, Trapilwe, and Temucuicui.

Her work has been supported by the Movement for the Defense of Water, Territory, and the Environment, with which she has filed complaints and precautionary measures in defense of the right to water in Chile.
In the elections held on 15–16 May 2021, she ran as an independent candidate for the Constitutional Convention representing the 23rd electoral district of the Araucanía Region, on a Equality Party slot within the Apruebo Dignidad electoral pact, receiving 8,607 votes.