Bachelet, Michelle << bah cheh LAY, mee SHEHL >> (1951-…), was the first woman president of Chile, from 2006 to 2010. She served a second term as president from 2014 to 2018. Her accomplishments as president included pension reform, expansion of Chile’s early-education network, and policies supporting gender equality. Bachelet also has held a number of posts in United Nations (UN) agencies.
Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria was born in Santiago, Chile, on Sept. 29, 1951. In 1970, she enrolled as a medical student at the University of Chile. While a student, she joined the Socialist Party. Her father, General Alberto Bachelet Martinez of the Chilean Air Force, died as a political prisoner in 1974, under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. In January 1975, Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, were arrested, interrogated, and tortured by Pinochet’s secret police. Later that month, they were released. They fled to Australia, and then to East Germany.
In 1979, Bachelet returned to Chile, where she completed her studies as a surgeon, pediatrician, and public-health specialist. Before entering politics, she worked as a physician and public-health consultant. In the late 1990’s, she studied military science as a graduate student in Chile and the United States. In 2000, President Ricardo Lagos Escobar appointed Bachelet minister of health for Chile. In 2002, he moved her to the position of minister of defense. She was the first woman to fill that post. Bachelet left the defense ministry in 2004 to focus on her presidential campaign. She ran as the candidate of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, which included the Socialist Party. Bachelet won the Chilean presidency in a run-off vote on Jan. 15, 2006.
From 2011 to 2013, Bachelet served as executive director of a new United Nations (UN) agency called UN Women, created to meet the needs of women and girls. Bachelet was reelected president of Chile in a run-off vote on Dec. 15, 2013. From 2018 to 2022, after her second term as president, Bachelet served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
