Bachelet, Michelle

In January 2006, Michelle Bachelet (1951-) was elected as the first woman president of Chile. Her leadership immediately reformulated what government would look like under her administration, as she appointed 10 women and 10 men to her cabinet. Her previous post was as the Defense Minister, the first woman to fill that position, not only in Chile but in any Latin American country. Hailed in 2008 by Time magazine as number 15 on its list of most influential people, Michelle Bachelet had long been active politically with the Socialist Party. She endured a period of exile to return home, serve in the democratically elected administration of President Ricardo Lagos, and to be democratically elected to the presidency herself.

Bachelet's education includes studies in medicine and military strategy. She graduated as a medical doctor, planning to use her skill to improve the deplorable medical conditions in Chile as a result of neglect by the Augusto Pinochet regime.

Bachelet's father, General Alberto Bachelet, served in President Salvador Allende's administration and was captured following the bombing of the La Moneda Palace by the coup which brought Pinochet into power in September 1973. Her father was imprisoned and tortured; he died in March 1974 of a heart attack while still in jail. Active in the Socialist Party, Michelle Bachelet worked against the Pinochet regime, aiding those who spoke against it. Eventually, she and her mother were kidnapped and tortured by the secret police in January 1975, then released into exile, where they fled first to Australia and then East Germany.

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