Felipe Harboe

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Felipe Harboe Bascuñán

Felipe Harboe Bascuñán (born Eindhoven, Netherlands, July 20, 1972) is a Chilean politician for the Party for Democracy (Concert of Parties for Democracy). He is the current Undersecretary of the Interior of Chile and Minister of the Interior suplente (substitute).

[edit] Early years

Harboe studied law at and received his law degree from the Universidad Central. During the government of Ricardo Lagos, Harboe served on the city council, in the Ministry of the Secretary-General of the Presidency of Chile, and in the Ministry of the Interior of Chile as undersecretary of the Carabineros de Chile. He was named the Undersecretary of the Interior on January 30, 2006 by Ricardo Lagos, and was reaffirmed for that position by Michelle Bachelet when she took office. As Undersecretary, Harboe had to take the oath of office of the new ministers during the change in administrations on March 11, 2006.

[edit] Undersecretary of the Interior

The position of Undersecretary of the Interior of great importance due to being responsible for coordinating the matters of public security and maintaining public order within the country. His main areas of specific work have been controlling major protests, like the 2006 student protests in Chile, strikes, unemployment, and anything else that threatens public order. Before the creation of the National Intelligence Agency of Chile (Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia de Chile), Harboe supervised the Public Security and Information Department (Dirección de Seguridad Pública e Informaciones, known as La Oficina). Currently he coordinates the work of the Carabineros and the Police Investigations (the Forces of Order and Security, Fuerzas de Orden y Seguridad) to fight crime.

After the resignation of Belisario Velasco on January 3, 2008, Harboe assumed the position of Minister of the Interior "suplente" (substitute), the first time that office has been held in the nation's history.