Michelle Bachelet

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean physician and politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Socialist Party, she was the first woman to be elected president of Chile and the first woman to serve as Chile's minister of health and minister of national defense. Bachelet entered politics as a member of the Socialist Youth and was detained and tortured by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet before going into exile in Australia and East Germany. She returned to Chile in 1979, completed her medical studies, and subsequently worked in public health and government. She served as Minister of Health under President Ricardo Lagos from 2000 to 2002 and as Minister of National Defense from 2002 to 2004 before winning the 2005–06 presidential election. Her first presidency included pension and social-protection reforms, the expansion of public services, and the creation of new institutions in areas including the environment and human rights, while also facing major political difficulties including the initial implementation of the Transantiago public-transport system and the aftermath of the 2010 Chile earthquake. After leaving the presidency, Bachelet served as the first executive director of UN Women from 2010 to 2013 and was again elected president in 2013, becoming Chile's first president to serve two non-consecutive terms. From 2018 to 2022, she served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, where her office issued reports on human rights situations in countries including China and Venezuela. Since 2024, she has served as vice president of the Club of Madrid. In 2025, she was nominated by Chile for Secretary-General of the United Nations for the 2026–2031 term, but withdrew her candidacy in September 2026 after a troubled campaign that saw the incoming government of President José Antonio Kast, a critic of multilateral institutions, rescind Chile's backing, and her support subsequently collapse in Security Council straw polls.

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