Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:31:31 -0500 (EST)
    From: Nancy Krieger <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: victory in Chile: Michelle Bachelet -- president,
physician, socialist


fyi -- and she is assuming office with a committment to, among
other
things, public health & social medicine (NB: the following article
neglects to mention that Allende was a physician as well, likewise
committed to public health & social medicine)


WASHINGTON POST: Jan 15, 2006

Socialist Bachelet Wins Chilean Presidency

By EDUARDO GALLARDO
The Associated Press
Sunday, January 15, 2006; 6:19 PM

SANTIAGO, Chile -- A socialist doctor and former political
prisoner was
elected Sunday as the country's first female president, with her
conservative multimillionaire opponent conceding defeat in a
race that
reflected Latin America's increasingly leftward tilt.

The victory of Michelle Bachelet _ a political prisoner during the
dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and defense minister in
the current
administration _ extends the rule of the market-friendly center
left
coalition that has governed since the end of Pinochet's 1973-90
rule.

With 97.5 percent of some 8 million votes counted, Bachelet had
53.5
percent of the vote to 46 percent for Sebastian Pinera, who
congratulated
his opponent on her victory but vowed "to continue to fight for our
principles, which do not die today."

Sunday's runoff was necessary after a Dec. 11. election
involving four
candidates failed to produce a winner with a majority.

Her political success has baffled many Chileans who thought a
left-leaning
single mother jailed during Pinochet's dictatorship stood little
chance in
this socially conservative country.

Current President Ricardo Lagos made her his health minister,
then in 2002
named her defense minister. She won praise for helping heal
divisions
between civilians and military left over from the dictatorship.

Bachelet had expected resistance from Chile's conservative military
establishment when appointed defense minister. "I was a woman,
separated,
a socialist, an agnostic ... all possible sins together," said
Bachelet,
who nonetheless became a popular figure among the admirals and
generals.

Bachelet's gender still prompts questions she does not like.

"You wouldn't be asking that question if I was a man," she chided a
Chilean reporter who asked if she would marry again.

But she did answer: "The truth is that I haven't had the time to
even
think about that. My next four years will be dedicated to work."

Bachelet, 54, will be only the third woman directly elected
president of a
Latin American country, following Violeta Chamorro, who governed
Nicaragua
from 1990 to 1997, and Mireya Moscoso, president of Panama from
1999 to
2004.

However, Bachelet, unlike those two women, did not follow a
politically
prominent husband into power.

Bachelet's father was an air force general who was arrested and
tortured
for opposing the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. Alberto
Bachelet died in prison of a heart attack, probably caused by
the torture,
Bachelet says.

A 22-year-old medical student at the time, Bachelet was also
arrested
along with her mother and later forced into five years of exile,
first in
Australia, then in communist East Germany. She married a fellow
Chilean
exile while in East Germany. Back in Chile, they separated, and
she had a
third child from a new relationship.

Lagos, the mentor she is following into power, has deftly
balanced his
socialist ideology with market-oriented economics and enjoys an
approval
rate above 70 percent. Lagos is constitutionally prohibited from
seeking
immediate re-election, but as he voted, his backers chanted "2010,"
referring to the next election.

In a speech to the nation after congratulating Bachelet on the
phone,
Lagos said, "We now have a new Chile, we have for the first time
in our
history a woman president."

In spite of their different political backgrounds and
ideologies, both
Bachelet and Pinera outlined similar goals, promising to
continue the
two-decade-long free-market policies that have made Chile's
economy one of
the healthiest in the region.

They two said they would fight to lower the 8 percent
unemployment rate,
improve public health, housing and education services and curb
rising
urban crime. They also promise to reform Chile's 25-year-old
private
social security systems to ensure better pensions for retirees,
though
neither has given details of how.

Bachelet said she would stress efforts to reduce inequities
among the rich
and the poor.

Lagos and Bachelet belong to the same Socialist Party as
Salvador Allende,
whose leftist policies prompted Pinochet's bloody coup. But the
party
allied with other major left-center parties in 1990 to oust the
right
wing, and their coalition has held while leading Chile into a
free-trade
pact with the United States, cutting inflation and fostering
growth of
about 6 percent a year.

Chile's next president will be inaugurated on March 11, joining
the ranks
of Latin American leaders including leftists such as Venezuela's
Hugo
Chavez and newly elected Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Bachelet indicated she would work with all the region's leaders.
"We
shouldn't take Latin America back to the Cold War. Chavez,
Morales, they
are presidents elected by their peoples. Chile must have
relationships
with all of them."

Pinochet, who dominated Chilean political life for a generation,
was not a
factor in the campaign, and his spokesman, retired Gen.
Guillermo Garin,
said he paid little attention to it. At 90, Pinochet is ailing
and was
only recently freed from house arrest. He faces charges of human
rights
abuses and corruption stemming from his 17-year rule.