Felipe Harboe

Felipe Harboe Bascuñán (born 20 July 1972) is a Dutch-born Chilean lawyer, academic, and former politician. He has held various public offices, including Undersecretary of the Interior (2006–2008), member of the Chamber of Deputies (2009–2014), senator for the Biobío Region (2014–2021), and member of the Constitutional Convention (2021–2022). A long-time member of the Party for Democracy (PPD) until 2021, Harboe has contributed to legislation and debates on public security, personal data protection, and institutional reforms during the 2000s and 2010s. His political and legislative career has been characterized by a technocratic and policy-oriented approach. During his time in executive roles, particularly as Undersecretary of the Interior, he led the development of Chile's first national public security strategy and coordinated responses to high-impact crimes in urban areas. Later, in Congress, he played a central role in drafting laws related to cybersecurity, consumer protection, and government transparency, including the lobbying regulation law. As senator, he promoted a constitutional reform to recognize the right to data protection, positioning Chile among the first Latin American countries to address digital rights at that level. After leaving the Senate in 2021, Harboe was elected to the Constitutional Convention, where he advocated for institutional guarantees of due process, legal certainty, and individual freedoms. In the final stage of his political career, he distanced himself from party structures and founded Proyecta Chile, a platform aimed at articulating centrist and liberal-republican ideas in the context of constitutional reform. Though no longer holding elected office, his legacy remains tied to themes of modernization of the state, legislative precision, and the intersection between technology and law.