No one could have imagined that 31 years after her torture at the hands of the Chilean military, Michelle Bachelet would be inaugurated as Chile's first female president. The road from Villa Grimaldi to La Moneda, the presidential palace in the Chilean capital of Santiago, was a long and winding one, taking Bachelet through Australia, East Germany, and finally back to Chile.
Michele Bachelet: The Early Years
On January 10, 1975 Michelle Bachelet Jeria (b. September 29, 1951), then a medical student, was taken by Chilean intelligence agents along with her mother to Villa Grimaldi, a detention center for suspected leftists located in Santiago, the country's capital. General Augusto Pinochet had toppled the socialist government of President Salvadore Allende Gossens in September of 1973, and Bachelet's father, a military official in charge of food distribution under President Allende, had been tortured to the point of death in 1974. Now Bachelet and her mother faced interrogation and torture for work as couriers in an underground movement to undermine the new military coup.
Bachelet was raised as the child of Ángela Jeria Gómez, an anthropologist, and Alberto Bachelet Martínez, a Chilean Air Force Brigadier General. Michelle Bachelet spent part of her formative years in the United States when her father was assigned a diplomatic post in Washington, D.C.; she became fluent in English as a result, returning to Chile to graduate high school and complete undergraduate studies.
She chose medical school as a practical career path and a humanitarian one, though the 1973 coup interrupted her medical studies. After being tortured by DINA, the Chilean secret intelligence organization, Bachelet and her mother were given the opportunity to go into exile; her father had rejected this option when General Pinochet had extended it to him, and was instead charged with treason, detained, tortured and died in prison. Bachelet and her mother escaped this fate, moving to Australia, where Bachelet's brother lived.
Bachelet in Exile, Her Return, and Her Blacklisting
Wishing to continue her medical studies, Bachelet moved to East Germany via military connections, and later enrolled in medical school at Humboldt University in Berlin. By 1980, just a few months into her studies, she was invited back to Chile and chose to return. She reenrolled in medical school and completed her degree in 1983; in the intervening years she had married.
Blocked from public sector work by the Pinochet government, Bachelet focused her energies on pediatric health initiatives, working for a private hospital in Chile as well as for the Protection of Children Injured by States of Emergency Foundation. By 1990 she headed up the foundation, the same year that democratic rule was re-established in Chile with Pinochet's resignation from office after voters voted him out in 1989.
Government Work and the Road to the Presidency
From 1990 to 2000 Bachelet worked in a series of government public health positions and earned a master's degree from the Chilean War Academy. Her background as a socialist was controversial in the early years of her political work, but by 2000 the combination of her personal and professional experience led to her appointment by President Ricardo Lagos as Minister of Health. Two years later she became the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Defense in any Latin American country.
In 2005 she ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket, eventually defeating opponent Sebastián Piñera of the conservative National Renewal Party in runoff elections. With her win, Bachelet became the first woman to win outright in a Latin American presidential election.
While other women had served as president of various countries, all had taken over for husbands who had formerly held the office. Bachelet was the fourth woman to hold the highest office in any Latin American country, and served one term. The Chilean constitution does not allow for more than one consecutive term for the presidency. Bachelet has not ruled out a future run, though in September 2010 she assumed the helm of UN Women.
Resources:
"Woman Taking Chile's Top Job," BBCNews, January 16, 2006, accessed February 18, 2011.
Ross, Jennifer. "Michelle Bachelet," International Journal, Vol. 61, No. 3, (Summer, 2006), pp. 724-733.
"Chile," U.S. Department of State, accessed February 18, 2011.
Melanie Zoltan - Melanie Zoltan is a former college professor and administrator who has written for About.com, PCWorld, Brain Child, Thomson Gale, and ...
Comments