Bachelet aims to be Chile's first woman president

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Bachelet aims to be Chile's first woman president

Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:40 PM ET

 

By Pav Jordan

 

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - A torture victim in the Augusto Pinochet

dictatorship, a former defense minister and a medical doctor, Michelle Bachelet

has parlayed her ability to connect with voters into becoming the favorite to

lead Chile as its next president.

 

In a campaign that saw her lead narrow and then widen again, Bachelet has

remained the front-runner in the race to Sunday's elections, and is likely to

become the first woman to lead the South American country.

 

" Together we recovered democracy for Chile, " Bachelet said during a recent

presidential debate. " Now I invite you to be a part of another historic moment

by electing Chile's first ever woman president. Let's make history. "

 

Bachelet, also a former health minister, is a socialist from the center-left

coalition that has governed Chile since the end of the 1973-1990 Pinochet

regime.

 

A January 7 poll showed Bachelet with 41 percent of the vote and Sebastian

Pinera, her rightist, billionaire opponent, with 29.7 percent. Earlier polls

predicted a closer race.

 

The same poll showed Bachelet, known for her charisma when she meets one-on-one

with voters, winning high marks for honesty and trustworthiness, and with a huge

lead over Pinera among lower-class women.

 

She failed to win more than 50 percent of the vote needed for an outright win in

a four-way first round presidential race in December.

 

IMPRISONED AND TORTURED

 

Bachelet is a separated mother of three and her liberal social ideas at times

clash with Chile's conservative elite, but business leaders trust her to carry

on the prudent economic policies of her mentor, incumbent President Ricardo

Lagos.

 

Chile's economy, heavily supported by soaring prices for the nation's chief

export, copper, has surged in the last two years. Under three consecutive

center-left governments Chile has become the region's star economy.

 

Bachelet, a 54-year-old medical doctor, is also drawing the support of young

Chileans, particularly women who are making up a rapidly increasing percentage

of the work force and who support one in three Chilean households.

 

" I think her brand of leadership will be tremendously close, tremendously

friendly and tremendously unhierarchical, " said Marta Lagos, head of the MORI

polling firm.

 

" I believe she will make a real attempt to transform (Chile's) rigid social

structure in terms of dismantling inequalities. " She said that otherwise

Bachelet would continue policies of the Lagos government.

 

Bachelet's brief imprisonment and torture at the beginning of the military

dictatorship and then unlikely later role as defense minister, presents a

compelling life story to Chileans.

 

She went into exile with her mother to Australia and Germany after they were

both released from prison.

 

Her father, an air force general, died of a heart attack in a prison camp where

he had been tortured. He was one of about 3,000 people who died or disappeared

in political violence during the military regime.

 

Critics have said Bachelet relies too much on her personal image and family

history to fuel her popularity, and that she has failed to outline clear

policies regarding how she will combat the wide gap between rich and poor in

Chile.

 

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

 

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