The Ministry of the Interior and Public Security (Spanish: Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública) is the cabinet-level office of home affairs in Chile, in charge of "maintaining public order, security and social peace" within the country. It is also charged with planning, directing, coordinating, executing, controlling, and informing the domestic policies formulated by the President of Chile. As responsible for local government, the minister supervises all non-elected regional authorities.
Carolina Tohá has served as Minister of the Interior and Public Security since 6 September 2022;.[1] Her Undersecretary of the Interior is Manuel Monsalve, the Undersecretary of Regional Development is Francisca Perales and the Crime Prevention Undersecretary is Eduardo Vergara.[2]
In the absence (because of travel, death, or other impediment) of the president of Chile, the Minister of the Interior becomes "vice president"; however, this is not a true vice presidential position, but rather a position of a designated acting president, as the post of Vice President of Chile has no existence independent from the Ministership of the Interior since 1833.
During the first days of the independence movements, the senior "secretary" of the respective Junta would function as the Secretary of Government. The office officially first came to be on 27 October 1812, when it was one of the two secretariats created by the Constitutional Norms approved on that date. It was then named Secretariat of the Interior. It was abolished in 1814 by the Spanish authorities when, after the Battle of Rancagua, they re-asserted royal power.
In 1818, after independence, the secretariat was re-established, but this time as a "Ministry of Government" (1817–18) later renamed "Ministry of the Interior and Foreign Affairs" (1829–71). During this period, its functions normally subsumed the future Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was separated as an independent government administration in 1871. This ministry has undergone several reorganizations during its long history, reflected in its different names:
The function of chief of government was unofficially assumed by the Minister of the Interior and Public Security (1891–1925).