Sebastián Piñera is dead. The 74-year-old former president of Chile died in a helicopter crash. Piñera was criticized primarily for numerous human rights violations.
Former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera has died in a helicopter crash. The accident occurred in the resort of Lago Ranco, 920 kilometers south of the capital Santiago de Chile, his office said. “It is with great regret that we announce the death of the former President of the Republic of Chile,” the statement said.
Chile’s Interior Minister Carolina Tohá also confirmed the death. President Gabriel Boric declared national mourning and ordered a state funeral.
The crash occurred in the municipality of Lago Ranco in the Región de Los Ríos, where there had been heavy rain, according to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera. The 74-year-old former head of state piloted the helicopter himself. He lost control near the shore of the lake of the same name, Lago Ranco, and fell into the water.
According to the Interior Ministry, in addition to Piñera, there were three other people on board who were able to reach the shore under their own power after the crash and survived. Emergency services recovered the ex-president’s body from the water.
Piñera was 74 years old. He ruled Chile for two terms, from 2010 to 2014 and 2018 to 2022. Piñera led the South American country through devastating natural disasters, including the aftermath of an earthquake and a tsunami. He also ruled during the corona pandemic and ensured one of the highest vaccination rates in the world in his country.
Neoliberal politics accompanied by protests
His political legacy has been marred by the police’s violent crackdown on demonstrators in October 2019 who opposed the country’s education, health and pension systems, which date back to the 1973-1990 military dictatorship.
International organizations pointed to massive human rights violations in the suppression of the protests. The social unrest ultimately led to two attempts to update the constitution, both of which failed.
Piñera’s first presidency was already marked by protests. His neoliberal economic course in continuation of the Pinochet era ensured that the Chilean economy grew continuously and unemployment fell, not least due to the high world market prices for copper – Chile’s most important export product.
One of the richest men in the country
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Piñera worked as a businessman in various industries. He was considered the owner of the fifth largest fortune in Chile, worth an estimated $3 billion. Piñera also worked for almost 20 years as a researcher at various universities and as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
He was married to Cecilia Morel Montes since 1973, with whom he has four adult children.
Numerous past and present presidents from Latin America expressed their condolences. Argentina’s President Javier Milei expressed his condolences through the presidential office to the family, friends and the Chilean people on behalf of the Argentine state. Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou and Colombia’s former president Juan Manuel Santos also mourned.
“Sebastián Piñera was a good personal friend and a great ally of Colombia,” Santos wrote on the X platform. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón said: “Chile has lost one of its best presidents.”
Anne Herrberg, ARD Rio de Janeiro, tagesschau, February 7, 2024 7:43 a.m