Mónica Jiménez

Who is Mónica Jiménez?

Mónica Eliana Jiménez de la Jara is a Chilean Christian Democrat politician and former Minister of Education.

Jiménez comes from a very political family. Her father Oscar Jiménez Pinochet was Minister of Health under President Salvador Allende, while her brother Jorge occupied the same position under President Patricio Aylwin. Even though she never formally joined the Christian Democrat Party until 2009, she supported it since she was a university student. She graduated as a social worker from the Universidad Catolica de Chile. In 1981, she obtained a Fulbright scholarship that allowed her to complete a Postgrade in Social Work Education at the Catholic University of America, in Washington D.C.

Jiménez was married to Juan Barros, with whom they had five children, and who died in 2002, leaving her a widow. She was a member of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation which investigated human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military rule under General Augusto Pinochet. She was also a member of the Presidential Committee on Higher Education Certification and the Committee of the Fundación Paz Ciudadana.