Michelle Bachelet Jeria, Presidenta de Chile

Chileans Watch for a Cultural Shift With Their First Female President
“…But cultural change is in the air in this South American capital. On Saturday, President-elect Michelle Bachelet will officially take office, becoming the first female head of state in what historically has been regarded as South America's most socially conservative country. A single mother, socialist and agnostic, she's the antithesis of the traditional Chilean middle-class housewife…”



Michelle’s journey
“…Michelle Bachelet is many things: socialist, agnostic, single mother, torture victim, former political exile and now Chile’s first woman president… And as dramatic as these might sound, it is her subtler, more elusive qualities that best explain what kind of leader she will be for Latin America’s most prosperous nation…”



Chile Set To Inaugurate First Female President
“…Bachelet’s inauguration marks a deep cultural change in this male-dominated, conservative society, where divorce was legalized less than two years ago, abortion remains illegal, and women often earn up to 40 percent less than men doing the same work…”

Chile headed for a new dawn
“…The new president inherits many advantages. Helped by the high world price of copper, which accounts for 45 per cent of exports, the economy is growing at 6 per cent a year. In winning the election in January, Bachelet was helped greatly by the popularity of Lagos, another socialist….”



Former exile Bachelet now Chile's leader
“…Michelle Bachelet, a single mother who was tortured under Chile's military dictatorship, was sworn in as the country's first female president on Saturday and promptly fulfilled a key campaign promise by naming women to half her Cabinet posts…”

Bachelet can build on Chile's progress
“…The inauguration of Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile tomorrow is an important event for the Americas. While not the first woman in the region to be elected head of state, Bachelet's rise to prominence was not influenced by marriage to a powerful man but rather by her own success, first as minister of health and then minister of defense…”



Bachelet inherits smooth-running country, but big gaps remain
“…Michelle Bachelet takes the helm of a well-functioning democracy whose economy is sailing crisply on the winds of free trade accords and China's hunger for copper. But what is hailed by some as the Chilean "miracle" also drags the ballast of eye-catching social inequity, the principal challenge facing the determined Socialist being inaugurated Saturday…”

Are Women Taking Over the World?
“…Coming from an ultra-conservative society where only 4 percent of senators are women, it would seem like a great feat that the 54-year-old Michelle Bachelet managed to convince Chileans to elect her their head of State. However, although Chile does not come across as the ideal place for a woman to rise to the top, Bachelet already had many factors working in her favour…”



Democratic women look to become catalysts for change
“…In a week marking the celebration of International Women's Day, the poll underscored some of the challenges and gains for women in politics… Pelosi, in a statement this week, noted that Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia's new president -- the first woman to head an African state -- is "part of a new wave of women leaders'' who also include Michelle Bachelet, a single mother, pediatrician and socialist who was elected Chile's president…”

Women's Day 2006 Sees More Elected Female Leaders
“…Chile’s former defense minister Michelle Bachelet became her country’s president this year, while Tarja Halonen won a second term in Finland's highest political office. Portia Simpson-Miller, a former minister of local government, won the presidency of the ruling People's National Party and in April will take over the premiership from retiring P.J. Patterson in Jamaica…”

Michelle Bachelet

Bachelet y el nuevo Chile
“…Tanto la prensa internacional como los medios locales califican el triunfo de Michelle Bachelet, una socialista de 54 años, como un hito y aseguran que representa una alternativa social en uno de los países más conservadores de la región…”

Bachelet, primera presidenta de Chile
“…En un país donde las casillas de voto separan a mujeres y hombres, la médica Michelle Bachelet, de 54 años, ingresó ayer en los anales de la historia de Chile al convertirse en la primera mujer en ser electa presidenta en esta nación, con el 53.49 por ciento de los votos, y la cuarta en la historia de América Latina… Con una holgada diferencia de casi siete puntos sobre el candidato de la Alianza por Chile, el millonario empresario Sebastián Piñera (46.5 por ciento), Bachelet, quien será la cuarta presidenta de la Concertación por la Democracia -que lleva ya 16 años en el poder- después de la sangrienta dictadura de Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), se comprometió a ser una presidenta "de todos…"

PERFIL-Bachelet será la primera presidenta de Chile
“…Michelle Bachelet sacó las garras en la campaña para la segunda vuelta de la elección presidencial en Chile y, tras los dardos opositores a su capacidad de gobernar, la candidata oficialista respondió sin titubear: "Estoy lista para ser presidenta"… La estrategia funcionó de maravillas: Ganó la elección presidencial chilena con el 53,5 por ciento de los votos en una segunda vuelta frente al empresario y candidato de la oposición de derecha, Sebastián Piñera…”



Faldas en La Moneda
“…Por primera vez en la historia de Chile una mujer entrará en el Palacio de la Moneda de presidenta y no como primera dama. Después de 57 años de dictada la ley que otorgó derecho a voto a las chilenas (1949), una fémina: Michelle Bachelet logró instalarse en el sillón de O´Higgins cambiando la cara de la nación sudamericana para los próximos cuatro años. Sin embargo, más allá de un rostro diferente, no ha de esperarse en los años venideros, mucho más que un maquillaje facial al neoliberalismo chileno…”

A Leader for the 21st Century
“…SOUTH AMERICAN neighbors Chile and Bolivia have recorded groundbreaking presidential elections within weeks of each other. Last month Evo Morales became the first indigenous leader to take power as president of Bolivia; on Sunday, Michelle Bachelet was elected to become Chile's first female president. Both leaders call themselves socialists, and thus represent a Latin American movement that for decades was forcibly excluded from government. Yet in political substance, Mr. Morales and Ms. Bachelet could hardly be more different. The contrast between them illustrates how Latin American nations, unlike developing countries almost everywhere else in the world, remain mired in confusion over economic models…” ("Chile luce y se comporta más y más como un país europeo")

Women's Place, Revisited
“…The election on Sunday of Michelle Bachelet as Chile's president completes a three-continent long jump for women in politics. Ms. Bachelet is the first woman elected president in Latin America who is not the widow of a political strongman. On Monday, when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated as president of Liberia, she became Africa's first woman to be elected president. And with Angela Merkel's election as chancellor of Germany, a woman now leads Western Europe's most populous nation…” (The New York Times se sumó a los elogios para Bachelet)

Celebrating Bachelet looks ahead
“…After months of campaigning and an inconclusive first round of voting, it came as something of a relief to most Chileans when it became obvious early on that a clear victor had emerged… Less than three hours after polls closed, the first partial results were announced and Michelle Bachelet's supporters began gathering outside her campaign headquarters in central Santiago…”

Single mum wins election
“…MICHELLE Bachelet, a former political prisoner and torture victim who once took refuge in Australia, has been elected Chile's first female president… She defeated conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera in yesterday's runoff presidential poll..”

Chile's Bachelet Vows to Keep Economy Vibrant
“…Chile's President-elect Michelle Bachelet vowed to keep her nation's copper-rich economy ``vibrant'' and take steps to improve healthcare and education after becoming the South American country's first woman leader… A socialist and former defense and health minister, Bachelet won 53.5 percent of the vote in yesterday's runoff election. Her opponent, Sebastian Piñera, a former senator whose family owns 27 percent of Chile's biggest airline, garnered 46.5 percent, according to the Interior Ministry…”

Michelle Bachelet's triumph
“…Michelle Bachelet has ended the male dominance of Chilean politics and shown how democratic pluralism is blossoming in the post-Pinochet era, reports Justin Vogler in Santiago… Michelle Bachelet, the 54-year-old paediatrician who once described herself as incarnating “all the capital sins: socialist, my father’s daughter, divorced and an agnostic”, is set to become Chile’s first woman president after winning 53.45% of the vote in the 15 January run-off election…”

Chile’s new era
“…The victory of Michelle Bachelet in the second-round of Chile’s presidential election on Sunday 15 January was in the end decisive. The result – Bachelet received 53.45% of the vote against 46.5% for her rival, Sebastián Piñera – confirmed opinion-poll predictions and the voters’ own forecasts. However, it came after a first round on 11 December where the two candidates of the right-wing Alianza gathered more votes than Bachelet, the sole nominee of the ruling centre-left Concertación, and after an expensive, negative campaign focussing on her and seeking to persuade voters that a woman – and a divorced, agnostic, socialist single mother, into the bargain – couldn’t possibly become Chile’s president…”

Leftward Drift in Chile
“…The resounding victory of Michelle Bachelet as Chile's first woman president represents an important social advance in a country where women are often treated as second class citizens. But few observers see the Chilean elections as reflective of the leftward trend taking place in much of Latin America. Cristian Cottet, the editor and owner of a book publishing house that specializes in political titles, says: "Bachelet is nominally a Socialist, but it would have made little difference if her conservative opponent had triumphed. The truth is Chile's political class is beholden to business interests and the neo-liberal economic model imposed on the country by the former dictator, Augusto Pinochet…"

Fmr. Political Prisoner and Torture Survivor Michelle Bachelet Elected as Chile's First Female President
“…In Chile, former political prisoner Michelle Bachelet has become the country first-ever female president. Running on the Socialist ticket, Bachelet beat her billionaire rival in Sunday's election. Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured and died in prison after Augusto Pinochet seized power in 1973. She too was imprisoned by Pinochet's regime before fleeing into exile. We speak with Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman, Chilean torture survivor Emilio Banda as well as Joyce Horman, the widow of a U.S. journalist who was killed by Pinochet forces…”