Hector Vega is a lawyer (University of Chile) and economist (Doctor of State in Economic Sciences from Aix-Marseille University) and holds a PhD in Social Sciences of Development from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. He has been a researcher in the Graduate Department of the London School of Economics and the Delhi School of Economics (India).

He received a scholarship from the British government and a fellowship from the government of India. He was a professor at the School of Economics and the School of Law of the University of Chile; the State Technical University; a researcher and professor at the Planning Centre and the Institute of Economics of the University of Chile; Deputy Director of the Seminar on Economic Sciences at the School of Law of the University of Chile; and a professor in the Doctoral Program in Latin American Societies at Arcis University in Santiago, Chile.

He has published 14 books in Belgium, Spain, Venezuela, and Chile. From 2005 to 2018, he was the editor of the website www.fortinmapocho.com. During the Popular Unity government, he worked at the Ministry of Agriculture in Santiago and in the provinces of Cautin, Valdivia, Osorno, Llanquihue, and Aysen. He was president of the Osorno Central Industrial Belt. During the military dictatorship, he was imprisoned at the Villa Grimaldi torture camp and other detention centres. He went into exile in 1976. On September 4, 2006, he gave a lecture at the French National Assembly at the invitation of Henri Emmanuelli, a founding member of the Nouveau Monde faction of the French Socialist Party. In the democratic era, he was a candidate for the Broad Front in the 2009 presidential elections, a candidacy that was unsuccessful when the 36,000 signatures he had submitted to the notary were not registered.

He has carried out numerous missions for non-governmental organizations, including DESUR (Santiago, Chile 1965-1966), AIDR (Brussels 1976), CINAM (Paris 1979-1980), and ACTON Consulting (Santiago, Chile 1995-1996). He was also a consultant at the National Institute of Statistics of Chile (1999) and the Under secretariat of Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2000). He served as an economist at the Ministry of Agriculture (1967-1968; 1971-1973) and the Ministry of Economy of Chile (1996-1997).

As a United Nations expert (1980-1988), he worked in Africa and Central America, advising governments on behalf of the ILO, FAO, and the Department of Technical Cooperation for Development in New York (DTCD). He was a Senior Economist in charge of economic cooperation for the Government of the Swiss Confederation in sub-Saharan West Africa (1988-1993). He served as Chief Consultant for Development Technologies on the USAID project for Panama's accession to the WTO, as well as on the Antitrust Law and the reform of the Pension System (1993-1994). He was an economic advisor to the Panamanian government in the Ministry of Economy and Planning (1994-1995). He participated in a UNCTAD mission to Haiti to organize a donor conference for development funds (2000).

Author's works

Tenencia de Tierras (1959). Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria. Santiago de Chile.

Régime foncier et développement économique (1962). Approche méthodologique

Étude sur la zone centrale au Chili. Bruselas, Bélgica.

Crónica de una dictadura militar (1975). Escrito usando el seudónimo: Francisco Solano. Caracas, Venezuela: Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Crítica de la Unidad Popular (1975). Escrito usando el seudónimo: Felipe Rodríguez. Barcelona, España : Editorial Fontamara.

Chili 1970-1973. La politique économique de la transition au socialisme (1980). Bruselas, Bélgica: Institut de Sociologie U.L.B. Centre d’Étude de l’Amérique Latine.

L’économie du populisme et le projet au socialisme proposé par l’Unité Populaire au Chili (1984). Bruselas, Bélgica: Institut de Sociologie U.L.B. Centre d’Étude de l’Amérique Latine. Centre d’Étude et de Promotion des Relations entre les Pays de la CEE et de l’Amérique Latine (CERCAL).

Hacia el Chile futuro (1984). Madrid, España: IEPALA.

Integración económica y globalidad. América Latina y el Caribe (2001). Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Tierra Mía.

La Fortaleza Americana. Militarización de la política en la Región Andina (2009). Santiago de Chile - Buenos Aires, Argentina. Editorial Arcis. Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO).

Episodios del Sahel (2011). Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Apostrophes.

Chile 1970-1973: une transition manquée (2012). Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Apostrophes.

Capitalismo del siglo XXI. Una mirada desde los Bienes Públicos. (2017). Santiago de Chile: Editorial Forja.

Cobre. El metal de la discordia. Crónica de un saqueo. (2025). Santiago de Chile. Editorial Forja