When the businessman Sebastian Piñera assumed the presidency in 2010, represented the return of the Chilean right to power two decades after the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Theirs was, of course, a democratic return in one of the most prosperous and stable countries in the region, the envy of many for the strength of the economy and the solidity of the political institutions.
The December 2009 election ended successive center-left governments that had taken over from the discredited dictatorship, and successfully led the country through a long transition. Piñera, a leader of the right-wing Coalition for Change, triumphed in the second round with 51.61% against former president Eduardo Frei.
By then he was a prosperous businessman who was simultaneously forging a career in politics. and who was waiting for his moment to climb to the top in national politics.
Close to the Christian Democratic Party, for the plebiscite of October 5, 1988, he made public his option for NO, contrary to the permanence of the military regime, a consultation with which Pinochet tried to extend his stay in power by whitewashing his government with a false democratic veneer. But Chile turned its back on him and the citizen confirmation that the dictator expected never materialized.
For the presidential elections of December 1989, he took over for a short period as campaign manager for the official presidential candidate, Hernán Büchi. He also launched his campaign as an independent candidate for senator for the 8th District (Santiago Oriente), for the parliamentary elections of the same year, which he won. After his election, he joined the National Renewal party (RN) as a member.
His interest in political life only increased and in 1992 he presented his candidacy for the 1993 presidential elections. In August of that same year, he had to decline his aspiration after a conversation about Evelyn Matthei, a colleague, was leaked to public opinion. of RN and internal adversary. After this episode, known as “Piñeragate”, both declined their campaigns.
Piñera appeared with more luck in the presidential elections of December 2005, where he went to the second round, although he ended up defeated in the runoff the following January by Michelle Bachelet, who beat him with 53.50% of the votes against 46. ,fifty%. His moment would come in the 2009 elections. There he presented himself as a candidate for the Coalition for Change (made up of the Independent Democratic Union, National Renovation and ChilePrimero) and won with 44.05%.
Tremors
The beginning of his first term was focused on reconstruction after an earthquake and tsunami that shook the central-southern area of the country. Theirs was a truly shocking beginning: at the same moment that the ceremony for the transfer of power was about to take place, in Valparaíso, an aftershock of 7.2 on the Richter scale shook Congress.
At the time of the strong tremor, the presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and Peru, Alan García, were climbing the stairs of the palace. Everyone paralyzed without any panic movements and the transfer of command ceremony continued without delay. With smiles and even laughter and hugs that eased the nerves, Bachelet handed over the attributes of power to Piñera.
His image gained shine with the reconstruction that his government undertook after the tragedy of the earthquake in the south, as well as with the Hollywood rescue of 33 miners trapped in the San José mine, in the Atacama Desert. The odyssey aroused the attention of the world, which followed minute by minute the changing expectations, fears and hopes that kept the families of the miners and the entire Chilean people in suspense.
With his assumption as president, he left behind, or rather put on pause, his role as a businessman, which began in 1977 as a member of Infinco, a financial advisory and project evaluation company. In 1979 he created Bancard, which brought Visa and MasterCard credit cards to Chile. Among other initiatives. He also entered the real estate, publishing and postal businesses, and assumed the representation of Apple in Chile, among other initiatives.
After making his candidacy for the 2009 presidential election official, Piñera handed over the management of his participation in open corporations to four investment fund managers and third-party portfolios. This involved the creation of a trust where he renounced any involvement in the administration or management of his assets.
Up hill
“I knew that my true vocation was public service and I went into politics,” he said in an interview in March 2019. That same year, however, his problems would begin. But there was still a long way to go. After completing his first term, on March 11, 2014, he left the presidency with a good image among public opinion. After a forced pause, given that the Chilean system does not allow two consecutive terms, he ran again and won for the 2018-2022 period. But this time global volatility, added to the weakness in the price and production of copper, made management difficult.
In October 2019 faced an unprecedented social outbreak with which Chileans took to the streets to protest against the economic system, considered in any case productive but at the same time exclusive. The trigger was the increase in public transport fares, although the unrest was deeper and questioned the growing inequality.
Popular discontent gave rise to a long process of constitutional reform, which is currently unfinished. that sought to rebalance the scores and somehow soften the successful but, according to its many critics, relentless socioeconomic machinery. Just a few months later, with the unrest still in the air, Piñera faced the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with its share of discontent over public aid considered insufficient.
The shocks evidently marked the norm, and in October 2021, towards the end of his mandate, the opposition filed an accusation against Piñera seeking his dismissal. The action was a direct consequence of the publication of the Pandora Papers that linked it to the purchase and sale of the Dominga mining project and financial movements carried out in tax havens.
Piñera had finished his first term with 50% approval, but his government was at 12% for the next elections and the right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast was defeated in the second round by Gabriel Boric. Just as Piñera represented the return of the right, Boric was the return of the left after Salvador Allende, the president overthrown by Pinochet.