Michelle Bachelet

Early life and career

Childhood years

Bachelet was born in the La Cisterna district of Santiago, She was named after French actress Michèle Morgan. Bachelet spent many of her childhood years traveling around Chile, moving with her family between military bases, including Quintero, Antofagasta, and San Bernardo. 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. Her family lived for almost two years in Bethesda, Maryland, where she attended Western Junior High School and learned to speak English fluently.

Returning to Chile in 1964, she graduated in 1969 from Liceo Nº 1 Javiera Carrera, a prestigious girls' public high school, finishing near the top of her class. She was class president, a member of the choir and volleyball teams, took part in a school theatre group, and co-founded a band, "Las Clap Clap", which toured local school festivals. In 1970, she entered medical school at the University of Chile, being admitted in the 113th position out of 160 applicants. She had originally intended to study sociology or economics but was persuaded by her father to study medicine, saying she chose medicine because it was "a concrete way of helping people cope with pain" and "a way to contribute to improve health in Chile". While at university, she was drawn into the Socialist Youth, influenced in part by young deputy Carlos Lorca, a fellow student leader at the medical school; her father, meanwhile, was appointed by President Salvador Allende in 1972 to head the Food Distribution Offices (JAP) tasked with combating shortages.

Detention and exile

When General Augusto Pinochet came to power via the 11 September 1973 coup d'état, Bachelet's father, who had refused to join the plot, 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 agents, who blindfolded them and took them to Villa Grimaldi, a notorious secret detention center in Santiago, where they were separated and subjected to interrogation and torture. A memorial to the victims of the dictatorship's repression stands today at the former Villa Grimaldi site.

In 2013, Bachelet said she had been interrogated by DINA chief Manuel Contreras there. She was later transferred to Cuatro Álamos ("Four Poplars") detention center, where she was held until the end of January. Thanks to the assistance of Roberto Kozak, Bachelet was able to go into exile in Australia, where her older brother, Alberto, had moved in 1969.

Of her torture, Bachelet said, in 2004, that "it was nothing in comparison to what others suffered." She and her mother were verbally abused and threatened with the killing of the other; she said she was "never tortured with electricity", although she witnessed it done to other prisoners.

In May 1975, Bachelet left Australia and relocated to East Germany, where she was assigned an apartment in Am Stern, Potsdam by the German Democratic Republic. Her mother joined her a month later and lived separately in Leipzig. In October 1976, Bachelet began working at a communal clinic in the Babelsberg neighborhood. During this time, she met architect Jorge Leopoldo Dávalos Cartes, another Chilean exile and a member of the Socialist Party's Central Committee, and they married in 1977. In January 1978, Bachelet went to Leipzig to study German at the Herder Institute of Karl Marx University (now the University of Leipzig). She gave birth to her first child, Sebastián, in June 1978. She returned to Potsdam in September 1978 to continue her medical studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin, enrolling under the name "Verónica Michelle Dávalos". Five months later, she obtained authorization to return to Chile.

Return to Chile

After four years in exile, Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979 and settled in La Florida. Her medical school credits from East Germany were not recognized, so she had to restart her studies where she had left off. She graduated as physician-surgeon on 7 January 1983, but her request to work as a general practitioner in the public sector was denied by the military government on "political grounds". She subsequently received a scholarship from the Chilean Medical Chamber to specialize in pediatrics and public health at the Roberto del Río Children's Hospital (1983–86), completing the program with excellent grades but never sitting the final certification exam for financial reasons.

Bachelet also worked at PIDEE (Protection of Children Injured by States of Emergency Foundation), heading its Medical Department from 1986 to 1990. Following the birth of her second child, Francisca, in February 1984, she and Dávalos legally separated. Between 1985 and 1987, Bachelet had a romantic relationship with Alex Vojkovic Trier, an engineer and spokesman for the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, an armed group that later attempted to assassinate Pinochet in 1986; her degree of involvement with the Front, if any, has been disputed, and Bachelet has denied ever collaborating with it. The affair became a minor issue during her presidential campaign.

After Chile's transition to democracy in 1990, Bachelet worked as an epidemiologist for the Ministry of Health's West Santiago Health Service and later for the National AIDS Commission (Conasida), while consulting for the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Health Organization, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit. During this period she began a relationship with fellow physician Aníbal Hernán Henríquez Marich, who fathered her third child, Sofía, born in December 1992; the relationship ended a few years later. From March 1994 to July 1997, Bachelet served as an adviser to the Ministry of Health under President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. Driven by an interest in civil-military relations, Bachelet studied military strategy at the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies (ANEPE) in 1996, finishing first in a class of twelve. This achievement earned her a presidential scholarship to continue her studies at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C., where she completed a Continental Defense Course in 1998, before returning to work as senior assistant to the Defense Minister and completing a master's degree in military science at the Chilean Army's War Academy.

Education reform

Among Bachelet's main campaign promises for the 2013 election was the introduction of free university education in Chile and the end of profit-making educational institutions, as a response to the 2011–13 Chilean student protests. The intention was that revenue from the increase in corporate tax rate by 2017 would be used to fund free education. The proposals were criticized and quickly became unpopular due to the opposition from students who felt that the proposals did not go far enough in removing profit making. Opposition parties, lower middle class voters and certain members of Bachelet's Nueva Mayoría coalition attacked the proposals as the law that would prevent individuals from earning profits on public resources would not address making improvements in quality of education.

In 2015, the Chile Constitutional Court rejected large portions of Bachelet's plan to offer free college education to half of the nation's poorest students on grounds that requiring them to attend certain schools participating in the program could be considered discrimination. However, what remained of the plan allowed Bachelet to send 200,000 students from low-income families to college free of cost.

In January 2018, the Chilean Senate passed a law guaranteeing free education which was supported by conservative opposition parties as well, allowing the poorest 60% of students to study for free and doubled state funding for public universities. The new legislation created a higher education Superintendent empowered to supervise and penalize institutions which do not provide quality of education or have for-profit operations. Alongside the free-tuition reform, Bachelet's government moved to "de-municipalize" public schooling, transferring control of public schools away from municipal governments and abolishing school co-payments.

2005–2006 presidential election

By the end of 2004, Bachelet's surging popularity in opinion polls made her the only politician within the Coalition of Parties for Democracy («Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia»; CPD) who was capable of defeating Joaquín Lavín in the presidential election. As a result, she was chosen as the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency. Initially hesitant to accept the nomination, as it was never a goal of hers, she eventually agreed as she felt she could not let her supporters down. On 1 October of that year, she stepped down from her government position to fully focus on her campaign and to support the CPD in the municipal elections held later that month. On 28 January 2005 she was officially named the Socialist Party's presidential candidate. An open primary was scheduled for July 2005 to determine the CPD's sole presidential candidate, but it was canceled after Bachelet's only rival, Christian Democrat Soledad Alvear, a cabinet member in the first three CPD administrations, withdrew early due to a lack of support within her own party and in opinion polls.

Ahead of the primary that never took place, Bachelet and Alvear had already faced each other in a televised debate in Hualpén on 27 April 2005, held in a moderate tone without major controversy, in which Bachelet addressed her relationship with Alex Vojkovic during the 1980s and her alleged ties to armed opposition groups, information that had recently surfaced in the press. Polling at the time showed Bachelet was widely seen as having won the debate, outperforming Alvear on most of the topics discussed. Sebastián Piñera's entry into the race in May 2005, competing with Lavín for the right-wing vote, drew away much of Alvear's centrist support, leading her to withdraw her candidacy on 24 May 2005 and confirming Bachelet as the Concertación's sole candidate.

Bachelet's campaign, run under the slogan "Estoy contigo" ("I'm with you"), emphasized her approachability and combined continuity with the popular government of Ricardo Lagos with the promise of a shift toward a "citizens' government". Her platform rested on three pillars: strengthening social protection (including pension reform, expanded preschool education, guaranteed funding for higher education, an expanded AUGE health plan, and a new ministry of citizen security), promoting economic development (maintaining the structural surplus policy while boosting support for small and medium enterprises and creating a ministry of the environment), and democratizing the political system (automatic voluntary voter registration, ending the binomial electoral system, and promoting gender equality and anti-discrimination measures, while stopping short of endorsing same-sex marriage).

In the December 2005 election, Bachelet ran against three candidates: Sebastián Piñera from the center-right (RN), Joaquín Lavín from the right-wing (UDI), and Tomás Hirsch from the left (JPM). As predicted by opinion polls, she didn't receive the absolute majority needed to win the election outright, obtaining 46% of the vote. On 15 January 2006, she went on to face Piñera in the runoff election and won the presidency with 53.5% of the vote, becoming Chile's first female president and the first woman in Latin America to reach the presidency through a direct election without being the wife of a previous head of state or political leader. With her victory, she also became only the sixth woman to serve as a head of state in Latin American history, after Nicaragua's Violeta Chamorro, Argentina's María Estela Martínez de Perón, Bolivia's Lidia Gueiler Tejada, Ecuador's Rosalía Arteaga, and Panama's Mireya Moscoso, and the second to be democratically elected in South America after Guyana's Janet Jagan.

On 30 January 2006, Bachelet was declared President-elect by the Elections Certification Court (Tricel) and announced her cabinet, which, for the first time, was composed of an equal number of men and women, as promised during her campaign. To reflect the balance of power within the Coalition, Bachelet named seven ministers from the Christian Democrat Party (PDC), five from the Party for Democracy (PPD), four from the Socialist Party (PS), one from the Social Democrat Radical Party (PRSD), and three without party affiliation. In the days that followed, the nominations for subsecretaries and regional intendants observed the same principle of gender parity.

Political issues

Bachelet began her term with an unprecedented absolute majority in both chambers of Congress. Prior to the elimination of appointed senators in the 2005 constitutional reforms, the CPD had never held a majority in the Senate. However, she was soon met with internal opposition from several discontented lawmakers in both chambers of Congress, known as díscolos ("disobedient", "ungovernable"). This opposition jeopardized the coalition's fragile and historic congressional majority on a number of key executive-sponsored bills during much of her first two years in office and forced Bachelet to negotiate with a right-wing opposition that she perceived as "obstructionist". By 2007, the CPD had lost its absolute majority in both chambers of Congress as several senators and deputies from the coalition became independent.

In December 2006, Pinochet died. Bachelet decided not to grant him a state funeral, an honour bestowed upon constitutionally elected Chilean presidents, but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by President Salvador Allende. She also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but did authorize flags at military barracks to fly at half staff. Pinochet's coffin was also allowed to be draped in a Chilean flag. Bachelet did not attend his funeral, saying it would be "a violation of [her] conscience", and sent Defense Minister Vivianne Blanlot instead.

In April 2008, Bachelet's Education Minister, Yasna Provoste, was impeached by Congress for her handling of a scandal involving mismanagement of school subsidies. Her conviction was the first for a sitting minister in 36 years.

Political interregnum

In April 2010, Bachelet inaugurated her own think-tank, "Fundación Dialoga". Its headquarters are located in Providencia, a suburb of Santiago.

Bachelet is a member of the Club of Madrid, the world's largest forum of former heads of state and government. Since 2010 she has also been a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, the leading think tank on Western Hemisphere relations and affairs, and served as the organization's co-chair.

UN Women

On 14 September 2010, Bachelet was appointed head of the newly created United Nations body UN Women by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, serving as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in that capacity. She took office on 19 September 2010. Under her leadership, UN Women helped secure agreement on eliminating and preventing all forms of violence against women and girls at the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. On 15 March 2013 she announced her resignation.

2013 presidential election

On 27 March 2013, Bachelet announced that she would seek a second term as President of Chile in the 2013 elections. The well-respected CEP released a poll in May 2012 suggesting that 51% of voters wished to see her become the next president, far ahead of any other would-be candidate. Bachelet had declined for most of Piñera's term to comment on a possible candidacy, but in the days after resigning from UN Women she returned to Chile on 27 March 2013, greeted by supporters at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, and confirmed her candidacy that same night at a public event in El Bosque.

On 30 June 2013, Bachelet became the Nueva Mayoría's candidate for president after she won a four-way primary election with the support of five center and left parties (PS, PPD, PC, IC, MAS) and 73% of the vote. Her campaign, run under the slogan "Yo quiero Chile" ("I want Chile"), centered on drafting a new constitution, establishing free higher education, and a tax reform to finance it, without dwelling on details that could fracture her broad base of support; it also sought the support of those who had taken part in the 2011–13 Chilean student protests against the Piñera government. On 7 October 2013, Bachelet presented a document listing 50 measures to be carried out in the first hundred days of a prospective government, and on 27 October unveiled her full platform, which proposed free education at all levels within six years, an end to for-profit schooling, reform of the binomial electoral system, a tax reform, and the drafting of a new constitution, among other measures.

In the 17 November 2013 presidential election, Bachelet fell short of the absolute majority needed for an outright win. In the runoff election, held on 15 December of that year, she beat former senator and Minister of Labor Evelyn Matthei with over 62% of the vote; turnout was significantly lower than in the first round. She became the first Chilean president to be re-elected to a second, non-consecutive term. Bachelet's proclamation as President-elect for the 2014–2018 term was confirmed by the Elections Certification Court (Tricel) on 10 January 2014.

Alleged links to the Odebrecht case

Léo Pinheiro, a former executive of the OAS Group convicted of corruption as part of Brazil's Lava Jato investigation, told Brazilian prosecutors that he allegedly funneled money to Bachelet's 2013 campaign at the request of then-Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Bachelet denied any connection, stating she had "never had a link with OAS, nor with any other company". When Chilean prosecutor Ximena Chong traveled to Brazil in March 2017 to question Pinheiro, he invoked his right to remain silent.

Constitutional and political reform

The Chilean Congress passed Bachelet's proposed abolishment of the binomial voting system introduced by the Augusto Pinochet regime and restoring proportional representation for election to both chambers of the Chilean Congress and requirements that 40% of candidates nominated are female in January 2015. The new system took effect from the 2017 elections, increasing the members of the Chamber of Deputies from 120 to 155 seats and the Senate from 38 seats to 43 seats in 2017 and 50 seats in 2021. As a result, the 2017 election saw the end of the dominance of Bachelet's Nueva Mayoría and conservative coalitions and increased number of new political parties represented in Congress.

Following revelations that President Bachelet's son and daughter in-law were caught in an influence-peddling scandal, she appointed a Presidential Advisory Council on Conflicts of Interest, Influence Peddling, and Corruption (known as the Engel Commission) headed by economist Eduardo Engel. Subsequently, reforms recommended by the commission were implemented which included: ability to remove politicians from office if found guilty for transparency and election spending limits violations, with disqualification for two subsequent elections; and constitutional autonomy to Chile's electoral service (SERVEL), giving it complete independence from the government to more effectively oversee electoral processes and the functioning of politics in general.

In 2016, overseas voting rights for Chilean women and men living outside the country were introduced, allowing Chilean citizens who live abroad to exercise a right to vote beginning from the 2017 elections.

Bachelet had also announced in April 2015 that a constituent process would begin that September to draft and approve a new Constitution of Chile to replace the 1980 Constitution. Five days before leaving office, Bachelet announced in a televised national address that she would present a new constitutional bill to Congress the following day. The proposal followed a series of low-turnout constitutional town halls ("cabildos") held between 23 April and 6 August 2016, not all of whose recommendations were reflected in the final text she submitted; the initiative was not taken up by her successor, Sebastián Piñera, and ultimately did not advance.