Bachelet, Michelle

Bachelet, Michelle

 in full Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria

(born Sept. 29, 1951, Santiago, Chile) President of Chile from 2006. Her father, an air force general, opposed the 1973 military coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power, and most of the family, including Michelle, were later imprisoned and tortured. Released into exile in 1975, she returned to Chile in 1979 and earned a medical degree. After Pinochet's ouster in 1990, she became active in politics and subsequently held several ministerial posts. In 2005 Bachelet ran for president as a member of the Socialist Party, promoting women's rights, aid to the poor, and pension-system reforms. She won the 2006 runoff election, becoming the first woman president of Chile and the first popularly elected South American woman president whose political career was established independent of her husband.