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 Michelle Bachelet
President, Chile, 2006 - Present
Michelle Bachelet is the current President of Chile, and the first woman to hold
the position. A moderate Socialist, her presidential campaign was based on a
platform of continuing Chile's free market policies, while increasing social
benefits to help reduce the country's gap between rich and poor, one of the
largest in the world.
In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as 27th in the list of
the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. Prior to becoming President,
Bachelet served as Minister of Health and Minister of Defense (the first Latin
American woman to hold the post) under President Ricardo Largos. Bachelet has
also worked for the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Health
Organization, and Chile’s National AIDS Commission.
Bachelet is a surgeon,
pediatrician, and epidemiologist, and has a Master’s degree in Military Science.
Bachelet has three children and speaks Spanish, English, French, German, and
Portuguese. |
