As the United States draws nearer to the possible election of its first female president, Panoramas decided to take a look at the female presidents Latin America has had in the past. Below are the profiles of each of these eleven women, whose successes and trials reflect the history of women in politics around the world.
As tradition mandates, every 11th day of the month of March following the election of a new president, Chile celebrates the inauguration of its new Chief Executive. In 2014, Michelle Bachelet becomes the first president to be inaugurated for a second time since the return of democracy in 1989. She takes the reigns back from Sebastián Piñera, who governed the country for the last four years.
Over the past few weeks, news coverage of protests throughout Latin America have focused primarily on Venezuela. However, protests against president Michelle Bachelet in Chile have begun.
On September 26th, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed into law a new environmental tax on carbon emissions, making Chile the first South American country to enact such legislation. The tax is targeting the country’s power sector, which is dominated by nearly 80 percent by fossil fuels.1 It is aimed at thermal plants with installed capacities of 50 megawatts or more. Plants of this size will be charged USD $5 per ton of CO2 released, exempting smaller plants and those fueled by biomass.1
After three years of the heading the organization, UN Women, which strives for international gender equality and empowerment of women, Michelle Bachelet returned to her seat as president of Chile. This is her second term in office and she is focusing especially hard on equality for women. As the leader of UN Women, Bachelet and other diplomats, worked on the 58th session of the Commission of the Status of Women to stake out five of the most important women’s equality agreements to improve on in international law.
In her first presidential speech in 2005, Michelle Bachelet remarked, “Who would have said…15 years ago that a woman would be elected president?”1 Yet many countries, such as the United States, have not been able to celebrate the election of a woman as head-of-state. Worldwide, representation of women in politics remains low: as of January 2015, only 22 percent of all national legislators were women.
On September 16th, 2015, Chile was hit, yet again, by a strong earthquake. The 8.3 magnitude quake was centered in the northern region of Coquimbo, 285 miles north of the capital and largest city, Santiago, and caused flooding in more southern regions such as Illapel, only 177 miles from the capital. Only five years ago in 2010, Chile was struck by another large earthquake but with much more serious consequences.
