Sebastian Pinera (1 December 1949-6 February 2024) was President of Chile from 11 March 2010 to 11 March 2014 (succeeding and preceding Michelle Bachelet) and from 11 March 2018 to 11 March 2022 (succeeding Bachelet and preceding Gabriel Boric). Pinera belonged to the conservative-liberal National Renewal party, and he was the first democratically-elected right-wing President of Chile since 1958.
Biography[]
Sebastian Pinera was born in Santiago, Chile on 1 December 1949, and he graduated from the Colegio del Verbo Divino in 1967 and the Pontifical University of Chile in 1971. From 1971 to 1988, Pinera worked as an educator, serving as a professor of economics at several universities. Pinera also became a wealthy businessman, and he had built a fortune of $2.4 billion by 2011; he introduced credit cards to Chile during the late 1970s and invested in LAN Airlines. In 1988, he opposed Augusto Pinochet's continued rule, and he supported Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle during his pre-candidacy for president. From 1990 to 1998, he served as Senator for Eastern Santiago, serving as a National Renewal member. Pinera was elected President of Chile in 2010, and his tenure saw Chile recover from natural disasters (including a mining disaster that left 33 miners trapped for 70 days) and build overseas relations; Pinera was regarded as an inept politician by several in his country, as he made errors like sitting as President Barack Obama's desk in the White House (breaching protocol), making an offensive joke about women, bragging about the fact that he was the descendant of an Inca emperor, and confusing Robinson Crusoe for Alexander Selkirk). He retired in 2014, but he ran for President once more in 2017, winning the election by defeating Alejandro Guillier. In 2019, widespread protests broke out across Chile to protest against a price hike for Santiago metro fares, and the protests soon came to focus on wealth disparities and political corruption in the country. On 18 October 2019, Pinera was forced to declare a state of emergency. He left office in 2022, and, on 6 February 2024, he drowned in Lake Ranco after his helicopter crashed and he was unable to take off his safety belt; his daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law survived.