Fanny Pollarolo

Fanny Pollarolo
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
11 March 1994 – 11 March 2002
Preceded byNicanor de la Cruz
Succeeded byMario Escobar Urbina
Constituency3rd District
Personal details
Born (1935-03-07) 7 March 1935
Party
SpouseMario Vidal
ChildrenThree
Alma materUniversity of Chile
OccupationPhysician

Fanny Pollarolo Prochelle Aguilar (born 7 March 1935) is a Chilean politician who served as deputy.

During the 2000s, she worked at the National Council for the Control of Narcotics (CONACE) and served as Head of the Department of Juvenile Responsibility at the National Service for Minors (SENAME) until 2010.[1]

She was detained on several occasions and imprisoned twice.[2] In 1984, she was detained and relegated to Maullín, Province of Palena. During this period, she was a leader of the Movimiento Democrático Popular. She was also a founding member of the women’s movement "Mujeres por la Vida", which organized large, peaceful demonstrations calling for the restoration of democracy.[1]

Biography

She was born in Linares on 7 March 1935, the daughter of the military officer Carlos Pollarolo Maggi and Ángela Villa.[1] She married Mario Vidal and was the mother of three children.[1]

She completed her secondary education at Liceo No. 7 de Niñas de Providencia in Santiago. She studied Medicine at the University of Chile, graduating as a physician-surgeon in 1961 and later specializing in psychiatry.[1]

After graduating, she worked as a physician at the Psychiatric Hospital and as a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile until 1973.

Political career

She joined the Communist Party of Chile and supported the initiatives of the Popular Unity government. After the 1973 coup d’état, she went into exile in Argentina from June 1974 to December 1975, returning to Chile in 1975 and resuming her political activities.[1]

As a psychiatrist, she collaborated with the Vicariate of Solidarity and, in 1978, developed the Medical-Psychiatric Program for Victims of Repression at the Fundación de Ayuda Social de Iglesias Cristianas (FASIC), which she directed until 1986. She was also involved with PIDEE (Protección a la Infancia Dañada por los Estados de Emergencia) and the National Commission Against Torture.[1]

In 1989, she ran as a candidate for senator for the Second Circumscription (Antofagasta Region) representing the Partido Amplio de Izquierda Socialista (PAIS). Although she obtained the second-highest individual vote, she was not elected under the binomial electoral system.[1]

After disagreements with the Communist Party, she resigned and founded the Partido Democrático de Izquierda (PDI), which she led between 1991 and 1994. The PDI later joined the Concertación and signed agreements with the Socialist Party of Chile and the Party for Democracy. Following the dissolution of the PDI, she joined the Socialist Party.[1]

In the 2001 parliamentary elections, she was not re-elected as deputy. Four years later, she ran for deputy in District No. 16, Santiago Metropolitan Region, but was not elected.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Fanny Pollarolo Villa". Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 February 2026.
  2. ^ "Villa Grimaldi apoya postulación de la Dra. Fanny Pollarolo al Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos". Villa Grimaldi. 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2025.