María Gatica Gajardo

María Idilia Gatica Gajardo is a Chilean politician who served in the Constitutional Council.
She was a founding member of the Chilean Republican Party.

Biography

Gatica was born in Santiago on 30 October 1962. She is the daughter of José Gatica Rivera and María Gajardo Pérez. She is married to Víctor Arce Araya.
She completed her secondary education at Liceo Isaura Dinator in Santiago, graduating in 1980. She later pursued studies in naturopathy and alternative medicine, focusing her professional activity on those fields.

Gatica was a founding member of the Republican Party in 2019, later serving as its national vice-president. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, she ran as a candidate for the Senate representing the Republican Party within the Social Christian Front electoral pact, in the 7th senatorial constituency of the Metropolitan Region. She obtained 27,478 votes and was not elected.
In the elections held on 7 May 2023, Gatica ran as a candidate for the Constitutional Council representing the Republican Party for the 9th Circumscription of the Maule Region. She was elected with 57,313 votes.