BACHELET TAKES OFFICE, CHILE'S FIRST WOMAN HEAD OF STATE
14 March 2006

Michelle Bachelet, winner of Chile's recent presidential election, has been sworn in and has taken power as the nation's first woman president. She inherits the economic legacy of fellow socialist, outgoing pres. Ricardo Lagos, who leaves surpluses in government revenue, a rapidly expanding economy and a well-functioning balance between free market policies and expansive social programs.

Bachelet, as detailed in our report on 16 January, suffered detention, torture and exile at the hands of the Pinochet regime, her father dying in prison after being detained for opposing the military coup. And like Lagos, also a persecuted dissident against Pinochet's rule, she has devoted years to helping Chile build firm, stable civil structures, to reinforce mechanisms and principles of freedom within a prosperous society.

Now, she plans to use the surpluses built up by Lagos to create a national social service program, designed to assist and protect all Chileans, with the goal of making Chile's democracy more egalitarian and more just.

Bachelet's inauguration appears to reinforce the trend across Latin America toward the election of "left-of-center" governments with progressive social programs, an aim to improve labor policy, or an agenda designed to enable marginalized minority groups. The trend has also been fed by an apparent desire among Latin American voters to want governments that will build up or protect local economic vitality.

Her pragmatic attitude toward social policy and her commitment to maintain the tough "fiscal discipline" and open market policies of the Lagos government have brought an enthusiastic welcome from the international community and from politicians across the political spectrum.

30 heads of state attended her inauguration, including regional leaders like Brazil's Lula, Perú's Toledo, Argentina's Kirchner and Bolivia's newly elected indigenous president Morales. The new president had visits from top-level diplomats, such as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and from sympathetic politicians from across Europe, including Catalán socialist president Maragall.

Surpluses of $300 million in discretionary spending, left by the outgoing Lagos administration will help to feed Bachelet's plans for a national public safety-net social security program. She aims to have the nationwide social security program in place and functioning by 2010, the bicentennial of Chile's independence from Spanish colonial rule.

One of the hallmarks of the former physician's social security plans is her promise to provide free healthcare treatment for all Chileans over 60 years of age, starting as soon as possible.

By 2009, the full scope of her pension reforms is expected to cost 2.2% of GDP, with spending rising slowly to avoid shock to economic output or budgetary allocation. In the near term, the reforms will be entering a research and recommendation phase, after which concrete plans would be drawn up for effecting the policy and spending shifts.

Bachelet is expected to extend the policies of the Lagos government toward the US, which included cooperation in economic and foreign policy, and a newly agreed bilateral free trade pact. Observers are watching to see if her reputation as a pragmatic socialist will allow Chile's economy to continue growing, while balanced against social programs, rights improvements. [s]

• MercoPress: "Michelle Bachelet Takes Office in Chile"
• El País: "Mandatarios de 30 países y casi mil invitados asistirán a la toma de posesión de Bachelet"

BACKGROUND:
CHILE ELECTS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT
OUTGOING PRES. LAGOS SAYS CHILE MORE OPEN, MORE MODERN, MORE JUST
16 January 2006

Michelle Bachelet has a long and turbulent political biography. She and her mother were kidnapped and tortured by the Pinochet government, after her father was murdered for his political affiliation with the Allende government. They were forced into exile by the military regime and Bachelet has worked to restore democratic principles to Chilean government. Like Ricardo Lagos before her, also a political prisoner under Pinochet, she is a moderate socialist, intent upon leading Chile's governing center-left coalition and her nation to a prosperous future, through wholly democratic processes.

Bachelet ran a campaign that promised to continue Chile's free market policies, and to increase social benefits to help reduce the gap between rich and poor, one of the largest in the world. She had served as Minister of Health and then in 2002 became the first woman to serve as Minister of Defense in a Latin American country, under the presidency of outgoing president Ricardo Lagos. [Full Story]