Michelle Bachelet
Michelle Bachelet Jeria (b. 1952) is a Chilean socialist politician and the first woman to become Chile's Defense Minister. She is currently a pre-candidate for Chile's presidential election of 2005, representing a faction of the ruling coalition Concertación.
Bachelet is a surgeon, pediatrician and epidemiologist educated at the University of Chile. She is the daughter of former air general Alberto Bachelet, who was killed as a result of torture in 1974, during the military regime of Augusto Pinochet.
Bachelet and her mother were detained in 1974 at Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Álamos, two notorious torture centers in Santiago. Upon release, they left the country and moved to Australia, and then settled in Eastern Germany. In the early 1980s she returned to Chile and graduated from Medical School in 1983.
Between 1994-97 Bachelet worked in the Ministry of Health. In 1996 she began to study the topic of defense, first in Chile and then in the United States, under a presidential scholarship. In 1998-99 she worked for the Defense Ministry.
In 2000 Bachelet was named Minister of Health by president Ricardo Lagos, and then in 2002, Defense Minister.
In late September 2004 Bachelet resigned her government post to start her presidential run. Current opinion polls indicate she is the frontrunner for the next presidential election, giving her a 25% advantage over her closest rival, former mayor of Santiago and 1999 presidential candidate, Joaquín Lavín.
External link
- Bachelet for president (Unofficial site, in Spanish)