Michelle Bachelet

 

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria born on 29 September 1951 is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December 2013 with over 62% of the vote, having previously received 54% in 2006, making her the first President of Chile to be re-elected since 1932. After her second term, she served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. Earlier in her career, she was appointed the first executive director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment for Women. 

Bachelet, a physician who studied military strategy, served as Health Minister and Defense Minister under President Ricardo Lagos, a Social Democrat President from 2000 to 2016 and opponent of military dictatorship. She is a legally separated (from her husband) mother of three and identifies as agnostic.

Bachelet is the second child of archaeologist Angela Jeria Gomez (1926–2020) and Air Force Brigadier General Alberto Bachelet Martinez (1923–1974). In 1962, she moved with her family to the United States, where her father was assigned to the military mission at the Chilean Embassy in Washington D.C. She intended to study sociology or economics, but was prevailed upon by her father to study medicine. She opted for medicine because it was 'a concrete way of helping people cope with pain' and 'a way to contribute to improve health in Chile. Facing growing food shortages, the government of Socialist and first Marxist President of Chile Salvador Allende placed Bachelet's father in charge of the Food Distribution Office. In 1970, during her first year as a university student, Bachelet joined the Socialist Youth wing of the Socialist Party. She was an active supporter of the Popular Unity a left-wing alliance of Allende. In the coup, she and her mother worked as couriers for the underground Socialist Party. Eventually, almost all of them were captured and imprisoned. When General Augusto Pinochet, a Chilian Military Officer and dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990, suddenly came to power via the 11 September 1973 coup d'etat, Bachelet's father was detained at the Air War Academy on charges of treason. Following months of daily torture at Santiago's Public Prison, he suffered a cardiac arrest that resulted in his death on 12 March 1974. In early January 1975, Bachelet and her mother were detained at their apartment by two DINA, (the secret police of Chile) agents. In May 1975, Bachelet left Australia and later relocated to East Germany. During this time, she met architect Jorge Leopoldo Dávalos Cartes, another Chilean exile, and they married in 1977. After four years in exile, Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979. After Pinochet's regime ended on 11 March 1990, Bachelet worked for the Ministry of Health's West Santiago Health Service. While working for the National AIDS Commission (Conasida), she became romantically involved with Aníbal Hernán Henríquez Marich, a fellow physician and a right-wing supporter of Pinochet, who fathered her third child, Sofía Catalina, in December 1992. Their relationship ended a few years later. From March 1994 to July 1997, Bachelet worked as Senior Assistant to the Deputy Health Minister.   

Bachelet was sworn in as President of the Republic of Chile on 11 March 2006. In the first 100 days, she fulfilled all the promises made during her campaign, including free health care for older patients, the social security system, and the electoral system. Later the pension system guaranteed a minimum pension for the 60% poorest segment of the population, regardless of their contribution history. In October 2006 Bachelet enacted legislation to protect subcontracted employees benefiting 1.2 million workers. In June 2009 she introduced pay equality legislation, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work in the private sector, regardless of gender. In September 2009 Bachelet signed the "Chile Grows with You" plan into law, providing comprehensive social services to vulnerable children from zero to six.  Bachelet delivered maternity packages to all babies born in public hospitals, 80% of total births. Bachelet granted amnesty to undocumented migrants from other Latin American countries. In the second term of the Presidency from 11 March 2014, Bachelet introduced free university education in Chile and ended profit-making educational institutions. Increased corporate tax.