Current Political Leaders, Dictators & First Ladies

Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile

Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile

Born December 1, 1949.

He was the winner of the second round of the presidential election that took place on Sunday, January 17, 2010, and took office on Thursday March 11, 2010. He is a well known economist, investor, businessperson, politician, former Senator, and leader of the presidential and parliamentary electoral coalition Coalition for Change.

Piñera was born in Santiago to Magdalena Echenique Rozas and José Piñera Carvallo who worked for CORFO and was Chile’s ambassador to Belgium and to the United Nations. His maternal lineage is of Basque descent and his paternal lineage is of Asturian descent. He is the third child, with three brothers and two sisters: Guadalupe, José (a former Minister of Labour under Augusto Pinochet), Pablo, Miguel (a well-known Chilean performer), and Magdalena. He is married to Cecilia Morel Montes and has four children: Magdalena, Cecilia, Sebastián and Cristóbal.

EDUCATION

One year after his birth, the Piñera Echenique family moved abroad to Belgium and later to New York City, where his father was the Chilean ambassador to the United Nations. Piñera returned to Chile in 1955 and was enrolled in the Colegio del Verbo Divino (“Divine Word High School”), from which he graduated in 1967. Piñera then matriculated at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile for his undergraduate degree in economics, from which he was graduated in 1971 with one of the highest grade point averages in the history of the university. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Raúl Iver Oxley Prize, given to the overall best student of each class.  Piñera continued on to Harvard University on a partial Fulbright Program for his postgraduate studies in economics. During his time at Harvard, Piñera and a classmate co-authored an article entitled, “The Old South’s Stake in the Inter-Regional Movement of Slaves” for the Journal of Economic History. He also worked as a teaching fellow during 1975 and 1976. After three years at Harvard, Piñera was graduated with both a master’s and a doctorate in economics. His thesis was entitled, “The Economics of Education in Developing Countries.” Piñera returned to his country in 1976.

FOUNDATIONS

In 1989, accompanied by Cecilia Morel, Danica Radic, and Paula Délano, Piñera created the Enterprising Women Foundation (Fundacion Mujer Emprende), originally called The House of Youth (La Casa de la Juventud). The foundation aims to assist in the development of young women of lower-income. In 1993 Piñera created the foundation Fundancion Futuro, of which he is president and whose directors are Cristián Boza D., María Teresa Chadwick P., Hugo Montes B., Cecilia Morel M., Renato Poblete S.J. and Fabio Valdés C. The head director of the foundation is Magdalena Piñera. The foundation’s mission is to help in Chile’s development of justice, freedom and democracy. The foundation was renamed to Fundacion Cultura y Sociedad following Piñera’s presidential election win. Under the Fundacion Cultura y Sociedad (formerly Fundacion Futuro) the Grupo Tantauco is created with the mission of environmentalism, and is administered by Juan Carlos Urquidi. It was created to support the proposals brought forth by Piñera, which he plans to make effective during his presidency. An additional project titled Grupo Tantauco: Derechos Humanos was proposed with the hope of beginning a reconciliation between the Chilean people who suffered human rights violations in Chile’s past history.

BUSINESSES

Piñera owns 100% of Chilevision, a terrestrial television channel broadcasting nationwide; 27% of LAN Airlines (LAN), 13% of Colo-Colo, a football (soccer) club; and holds significant stock positions in companies such as Quiñenco, Enersis, and Soquimich. Piñera has built an estimated fortune of 1 billion USD as of March 2009, according to Forbes magazine. His wealth is attributed in great part to his involvement in the introduction of credit cards to Chile in the late 1970s and his subsequent investments, mainly in LAN Airlines stock. Piñera acquired shares of the formerly state-owned company from Scandinavian Airlines in 1994, as part of a joint venture with the Cueto family. In 1982, an arrest warrant was issued against Piñera. He was accused of violating the Banking Law during his time as general manager of the Bank of Talca. Piñera spent 24 days in hiding, while his lawyers appealed the order. A writ of habeas corpus was first rejected by the Appeals Court, but then approved by the Supreme Court, acquitting Piñera. In July 2007, Piñera was fined approximately 680,000 USD by Chile’s securities regulator (SVS) for not withdrawing a purchase order after he received privileged information (an infraction similar to insider trading) of LAN Airlines stock in mid-2006. Piñera denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the whole process was part of a political attack to damage his image. He did not appeal, stating that the court process could take years and interfere with his intention to run again for president in late 2009. Later that month, he resigned from the boards of LAN and Quintec

POLITICAL CAREER

Piñera declared he voted No in the 1988 plebiscite on Augusto Pinochet. However, in 1989 he headed the presidential campaign of Hernán Büchi, a former finance minister of the Pinochet government. During the same election process, Piñera was elected as Senator for East Santiago (1990-1998) and soon after, joined the center-right National Renewal Party. During his term as Senator he was a member of the Senate Finance Committee. In 1992 Piñera’s attempt to become his party’s candidate for the following year’s Presidential election would end dramatically after he was involved in a scandal known as Piñeragate, wherein a wiretapped conversation between himself and a friend was revealed during a political television show he attended. In the conversation – made public by the television station’s owner, Ricardo Claro – he conspired to have his rival for the party’s nomination, Evelyn Matthei, cornered during the show by a journalist close to Piñera. The tape was then revealed to have been illegally recorded by a member of the military and given to Matthei, who then gave it to Claro. Matthei stepped down from the presidential race as well. Piñera was president of his party from 2001 to 2004. He tried to run for Senator in 2001, but resigned his campaign after the presidential candidate of his alliance -and member of the allied party, the Independent Democrat Union (UDI)-, Joaquín Lavín made it clear he would not support candidates from Piñera’s party, insisting on supporting retired Admiral Jorge Arancibia instead. On May 14, 2005, in a surprise move Piñera announced his candidacy for the 2005 presidential election (RN was supposed to support UDI’s Lavín.) He has described his political philosophy as Christian humanism. In the first round of the election, on December 11, he obtained 25.4% of the vote, which placed him in second place. Since no candidate achieved an absolute majority, a runoff election was held on January 15, 2006, between himself and Michelle Bachelet of the governing coalition. Bachelet won the presidency with over 53% of the vote.

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebasti%C3%A1n_Pi%C3%B1era

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, Former President of Chile

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, Former President of Chile

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, was born on September 29, 1951. She is a trained pediatrician and public health specialist who also holds degrees in military science. A member of the Socialist Party and separated mother of three, Dr. Bachelet was the first woman in Chilean and Latin American history to hold the Health and Defense portfolios. On January 15, 2006 she became Chile’s first-ever woman president.

Michelle Bachelet graduated from Santiago’s Javiera Carrera Secondary School in 1969. A year later she enrolled at the University of Chile medical school and joined the Socialist Party.

Her father, Air Force General Alberto Bachelet, was arrested in the aftermath of the coup d’etat of September 1973 and died in prison in March 1974. In January 1975 both she and her mother, Ángela Jeria, were arrested and tortured. After their release they went into exile in Australia, then in Germany.

In 1979 Michelle Bachelet returned home. In 1982 she completed her medical training at the University of Chile. From 1983 through 1986 she completed a residency in Pediatric Medicine and Public Health. From 1986 through 1990 she headed the Medical Department of PIDEE, an NGO assisting the children of victims of the military regime.

In 1990 Michelle Bachelet joined the West Santiago Health Service and the National AIDS Commission, and was consultant on public health issues to several international organizations.

In March 1994 she became Senior Assistant to the Deputy Health Minister and a year later was named to the Socialist Party Central Committee. In 1996 she enrolled at Chile’s National Academy for Strategic and Policy Studies. In 1997 she completed the Continental Defense Course at the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Defense College. From 1998 through 2000 she was Senior Assistant to the Defense Minister and became a member of the Socialist Party Executive Committee.

On March 11, 2000 President Ricardo Lagos appointed her as Health Minister. On January 7, 2002 she became the first woman in Chilean and Latin American history to hold the Defense portfolio.

On October 1, 2004, Dr. Bachelet stepped down as Defense Minister to stand as presidential candidate. Following a 438-day presidential campaign, she and her three contenders square off at the polls on December 12, 2005. She received a massive, but not yet decisive, 45.95% of the popular vote.

On January 15, 2006, a final election runoff vote was held, and Michelle Bachelet won with 53.5% percent of the vote. After 476 days on the stump, she became the first woman in Chilean history to hold the highest office in the land.