Mercedes Hortensia Bussi Soto (22 July 1914 – 18 June 2009) was the wife of Chilean President Salvador Allende.

She was the daughter of Ciro Bussi Aguilera, an officer in the country's merchant marine and Mercedes Soto García.

[1] She graduated from the University of Chile as a teacher of History and Geography and worked as a librarian at the National Statistics Office.

Allende then became minister of health in the Popular Front government of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, at the start of his political career.

In 1975, she was a member of the jury at the 9th Moscow International Film Festival,[4] and in 1977 she stood as candidate for Rector of the University of Glasgow,[2] losing to the student John Bell.