Michelle Bachelet

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Michelle Bachelet (2018) Signature of Michelle Bachelet

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria [ beˈɾonika miˈtʃel βatʃeˈlet ˈxeɾja ] (born September 29, 1951 in Santiago de Chile ) is a Chilean surgeon and politician ( Partido Socialista de Chile , PS, German Socialist Party of Chile). She has been the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since September 1, 2018 .

From 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018 she was President of her country and thus the first woman in this office. In the meantime, she was Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations as Executive Director of the UN women's organization UN Women .

Life

Michelle Bachelet together with her father in the 60s / 70s

Michelle Bachelet is the daughter of General of the Chilean Air Force , Alberto Bachelet , of the coup in 1973 in Chile President Salvador Allende had remained loyal and by members of the regime of Augusto Pinochet arrested and tortured was. The following year he suffered a fatal heart attack . Michelle and her mother fled to the GDR via Australia . About the time before her escape, Bachelet reported - in 2013, shortly before the presidential election - of her own experiences in the “ Villa Grimaldi ” torture prison in January 1975: “My head was in a hood and I was insulted, threatened and sometimes beaten. But I was spared the Parrilla , a torture device consisting of a bed frame for electric shocks, literally called a grill in Spanish . ”She learned German at the Herder Institute at the University of Leipzig . She studied medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin . On October 19, 2006 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Charité . Her services to the health system and the care of underprivileged people, which she achieved as a pediatrician and politician in Chile, were recognized.

Long before the end of the US-sponsored Pinochet regime, she returned to her homeland in 1979 and joined the Socialist Party . She completed her studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She lived with the doctor Aníbal Henríquez for five years, even though he had supported Pinochet's regime; she has a child with him. Despite the long time that has passed since the end of Pinochet's regime, Bachelet still does not speak of reconciliation, but of reencuentro , since it is still too early for many affected families for a reconciliation.

Bachelet has three children. She speaks Spanish , German , English , French , Portuguese and some Russian .

Political career

Between 1994 and 1997 she worked in the Ministry of Health under Minister Alejandro Sandoval . In 1996 she attended a military training course at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, DC . Two years later she moved to the Ministry of Defense. On March 11, 2000, she was appointed Minister of Health by President Ricardo Lagos .

In 2002, Bachelet became the first woman to become Minister of Defense in Chile. She was head of an army that is largely still led by people who actively supported the Pinochet dictatorship and were responsible for thousands of murders and tens of thousands of victims of torture.

First presidency

Bachelet at the ballot box in the first round of the presidential election (2005)

Bachelet, which is extremely popular in her party, was nominated as a presidential candidate by the Socialist Party in mid-2005, and had to prevail against Christian Democrat Soledad Alvear in the Primarias (primaries) . But after a first televised duel, intra-party power struggles in the Christian Democratic Party and under the impression of the sudden candidacy of the right-wing conservative candidate of the Renovación Nacional , Sebastián Piñera , Alvear withdrew her candidacy in order to enable a coalition of the left parties against the right-wing electoral alliance Alianza por Chile . In the presidential election on December 11, 2005 , Bachelet u. a. against the two conservative candidates Sebastián Piñera (Renovación Nacional) and Joaquín Lavín ( UDI ). Although the RN and UDI had merged to form Alianza por Chile , they could not agree on a common candidate. Piñera and Lavín together received 48.63% of the vote, and 45.95% voted for Bachelet. In the campaign leading up to the runoff election, which took place on January 15, 2006, practically the entire government apparatus got involved in the election campaign. In particular, the incumbent President Ricardo Lagos openly supported Bachelet's candidacy, which won the runoff election with 53.5% of the votes against Piñera. Since 1990, direct re-election under the Chile constitution has not been possible. Her high reputation around the world opened up an international career for her after the end of her tenure.

Second presidency

Michelle Bachelet in March 2014 on her introduction to her second term as President of Chile together with Isabel Allende (left) and her predecessor Sebastián Piñera (right)

For the presidential election on November 17, 2013 , Bachelet was again nominated as a candidate for the electoral alliance Nueva Mayoría , which includes parties from the center and the left. Bachelet prevailed on December 15, 2013 in the second ballot against the conservative candidate Evelyn Matthei , she received around 62.2 percent of the vote.

UN career

On September 14, 2010, Michelle Bachelet was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the post of Executive Director - in the rank of Under-Secretary General of the UN - of the women's organization UN Women .

In 2017 she received the Champions of Earth Award .

On August 8, 2018, UN Secretary General António Guterres appointed Bachelet to succeed Seid al-Hussein in the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights . The decision was confirmed two days later by the United Nations General Assembly.

See also

Films about Michelle Bachelet

  • Ebbo Demant : Michelle Bachelet. Symbol of the new Chile. Germany, 2004.

Web links

Commons : Michelle Bachelet  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CERTIFICADO DE INSCRIPCIÓN. EN EL REGISTRO NACIONAL DE PRESTADORES INDIVIDUALES DE SALUD , superdesalud.gob.cl,
  2. ↑ Rodrigo Cea: Bachelet revela que fue interrogada por el jefe de la policía secreta de Pinochet. La candidata presidencial contradice a Manuel Contreras , que aseguró que ella no conocía Villa Grimaldi . In: elpais.com. El País , October 8, 2013, accessed March 23, 2019 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ press release. Number: 2006/062. (No longer available online.) In: zv.uni-leipzig.de. University of Leipzig, March 2, 2006, archived from the original on December 16, 2013 ; accessed on January 2, 2019 (last change: December 16, 2013).
  4. ↑ Kerstin Endele: Honorary doctorate from the Charité for Michelle Bachelet: President of the Republic of Chile is recognized. Press release. In: idw-online.de. Science Information Service, October 19, 2006, accessed on January 2, 2019 .
  5. ↑ (tjb): Bachelet's way back to power. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 2, 2013, accessed January 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Tjerk Brühwiller: Easy victory and difficult task for Bachelet. In: nzz.ch. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 16, 2013, accessed on January 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ Executive Director. (No longer available online.) In: unwomen.org. UN Women's Secretariat, archived from the original on January 5, 2011 ; accessed on January 2, 2019 .
  8. ↑ red, ORF.at / Agencies: Guterres appoints Bachelet as human rights commissioner. In: news.ORF.at. August 8, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2018 .
  9. ↑ red, ORF.at/Agenturen: Bachelet confirmed as UN human rights commissioner. In: ORF.at, August 10, 2018, accessed on the same day.
personal data
SURNAME Bachelet, Michelle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bachelet Jeria, Verónica Michelle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean medic and politician, President of Chile
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Chile