Michelle Bachelet
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| - | President Bachelet married Emilio in 1981, and had two children with him. The oldest, Maria is | + | President Bachelet married Emilio in 1981, and had two children with him. The oldest, Maria is 22. The second, Sofia is 18. Emilio, and President Bachelet separated in 1992. Bachelet lives with her two children in the Palacio de La Moneda. She is agnostic. She is currently single, and has said that she will not marry while in office. Her oldest daughter, Maria is the First Lady of the Confederate States of Latin America. Bachelet has said she would like to find someone to spend her life with, but that while in office it is better for her to stay single. Some of her keenest supporters say "Michelle is married to the nation". |
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Revision as of 13:08, 4 June 2008
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| Current Title | President Michelle Bachelet |
| Current Positions: | President of the Confederate States of Latin America |
| Previous Positions: |
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| Term of Office: | 1st February 2003 to present |
| Predecessor: | Eduardo Campo |
| Successor: | Incumbent |
| Birthdate: | 29th September, 1951 |
| Place of Birth: | Santiago, Chile, ECAL |
| Marital Status | Separated |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer |
| Political party | Partido Republicano Constitucional |
| Languages spoken | Spanish English Portugese German French |
| Degrees |
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| Honours |
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Contents |
Biography
Early Life
Bachelet was born in Santiago to an Air Force General, and a housewife. She is of French, Swiss, and Greek extraction.
During her childhood, she rarely stayed in one place for more than two years due to her father's career. She has two main interests, music, and law. During her schooling, she excelled in singing, and debating. She has reportedly said that she gained more education in the debating team, than in all of her schooling.
She displayed a unique talent for languages. Both French, and Spanish were spoken in her home, and she could speak fluent English by her 15th birthday.
After completing her BA at the University of Bolivia School of Law and Justice, she took her bar examination, and began practicing law in 1976 in Bogota, Colombia.
Politics
Bachelet is a minarchist.
Secretary of State
Bachelet campaigned for Morales tirelessly, and the PRC won the 1986 elections. Morales appointed her Secretary of State. At her first Conference of the Consejo de los Gobiernos Americanos Latinos (Council of Latin American Governments, consisting of the Federal Government, and all the State Governments) she spoke of the need for increased liberalisation in the economic field, and the need for a "reencuentro" between Pinochet and those who served him on the one hand, and the victims of the regime on the other hand. She pushed the states on economic regulation, and bringing former regime-servants to trial.
Governor of Chile
In 1989, Bachelet resigned the post of Secretary of State in order to campaign for the Chilean elections which would be held later in that year. She ran for Governor of Chile on a free market platform, and won 56% of the vote.
While Governor of Chile, she cut taxes to the lowest in Chile's history, removed the remaining regulations on interstate trade, and substantially cut government spending. Among her more controversial decisions was the abandonment of pensions for public servants funded from the General Revenue. Public servants of all kinds had to provide for their own retirement. Bachelet justified this by saying to a meeting of the Unión de los Trabajadores del Gobierno del Estado (Union of State Government Workers)
"Working for the government does not means special privileges. All other Chileans must fund their own retirements out of soundly invested savings. To say that the Chileans funding their own retirement should be forced to fund the retirements of government workers is to say that we in government are better than the rest of the people, that we deserve more. No one in government deserves more. The State Government of Chile is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are not above the people, we are of the people."
Governor Bachelet made only one exception, police officers wounded in the line of duty, and the families of police officers who had been killed.
Under her administration, Chile's relations with the Federal Government improved even though the President at the time (Jorge Batlle Ibáñez) was a Socialist. Most commentators put this down to the fact that she had sat on both sides of the CGAL table.
Inspite of a substantial effort by the government Unions to oust her, and the general tendency of Chileans not to reelect Governors, in 1996, Bachelet became the first Governor of Chile to be reelected.
Pundits put her victory down to large tax cuts, good economic growth, and her campaigning style. She campaigned all the time, spending much of her time meeting with, and talking to the common voters. For weeks at a time, Bachelet would go from door to door, knocking on doors, and asking to chat with the residents. She said after the campaign "I was offered so much coffee that I could hardly sleep during the campaign". Her campaigning style has been called "Coffee Campaigning" for this reason, and it served her well in the 2002 Presidential Election.
Secretary of Defence
With the ending of Bachelet's second term as Governor of Chile, President Eduardo Campo asked her to serve as his Secretary of Defence in 1998, she was sworn in during 1999. Bachelet eagerly seized the challenge.
Bachelet knew the importance of the relationship between the military and civilian government. She had seen military dictatorships in Central America and was determined to eliminate any possibility. Bachelet believed that the military should be completely apolitical, carrying out the policies of the government of the day, and she believed that the way to change the military was from the bottom up. She was careful not to tred on too many toes. To change the military, she substituted her methed of campaigning to her new post. She toured military bases all over the ECAL, speaking to the troops, and young officers. She took a particular interest in the Universidad Militar Nacional, and the individual service academies, the Universidad De la Guerra Del Ejército Confederado (Army), the Academia De la Fuerza Aérea (Air Force), and the Academia Naval de los Estados Confederados (Navy), talking to Cadets, and introducing courses of military ethics, and the proper place of the military in the nation.
Bachelet also initiated modernisation programs, such as the purchase of the Cobra Surface-to-Air Missile series, and the F-15K Slam Eagle. She also presided over an expansion of the ECAL's nuclear arsenal.
In 2002, she resigned to campaign for the Presidency, Campo having decided not to run. As before, Bachelet used her technique of "Coffee Campaigning" to get the vote out. She campaigned on a platform of increased military strength, social liberalisation, further economic liberalisation, and tax and spending cuts.
President of the Confederate States of Latin America
Michelle Bachelet won the election with a vote of 59%, the highest ever received by a Presidential candidate. She was sworn in on the 1st of February, 2003.
During her first term in office, she radically continued the economic program of liberalisation started by Pinochet. Among the measures she put in place were the removal of the minimum wage, and a transition to the gold standard, abandoning the fiat paper peso for a free market in money, which means that gold and in some places, silver coin and certificates, became the only acceptable currency. The Government, in terms of paying contractors and civil servants, went over to gold completely in 2004. The legislation saw a return to the use of the old Spanish dollar, among other currencies.
Current gold coin designs feature pictures of pre-1965 Presidents, National, and State Animals, and important historical and architectural sites.
All taxes were cut, and many abolished until 2006, when all that remained was a flat rate income tax, set at 15%. Bachelet's administration removed the last barriers to imports and exports. Now the only regulations that inhibit imports and exports are specifically related to arms, and nuclear technology. The regulations on arms do not apply to small arms.
Bachelet, in 2003, removed the gun laws which had been imposed by the left-wing military junta.
Bachelet has decided that she will stand for re-election in 2010, and she is favoured by most commentators as the front-runner.
Personal Life
President Bachelet married Emilio in 1981, and had two children with him. The oldest, Maria is 22. The second, Sofia is 18. Emilio, and President Bachelet separated in 1992. Bachelet lives with her two children in the Palacio de La Moneda. She is agnostic. She is currently single, and has said that she will not marry while in office. Her oldest daughter, Maria is the First Lady of the Confederate States of Latin America. Bachelet has said she would like to find someone to spend her life with, but that while in office it is better for her to stay single. Some of her keenest supporters say "Michelle is married to the nation".
| Preceded by: Eduardo Campo | President of the Confederate States of Latin America | Succeeded by: Incumbent |
