[thechat] Presidenta Bachelet

[javier velasco]

Judah McAuley wrote:

>I have been following the election to some extent and have been 
>impressed by her. She seems very strong and level-headed. Considering 
>what Chile has been through (and what she personally went through) under 
>Pinochet, I can see situations where reprisals are very tempting. She 
>seems to be above that and I think that is a good thing for the country 
>and the region.
>  
>
Yes, I believe that was a very important factor to make her win, being 
above all that pain.

For those of you who don't know what me mean by her personal history, 
I'm copying part of a message that I sent to someone else...

--
In the current government, she did a great job as head of the Department 
of Health, and especially later at Defense, where she closed a wonderful 
healing process fixing the broken trust between citizenship and our 
armed forces - and this was especially significant since she had been 
tortured by our army (by chances of life, one of her torturers lived in 
the same appartment building as her, and they met a couple of times in 
the elevator) and her father had been murdered by the army (a General 
accused of treason)... she incarneted forginveness, became the first 
female head of the department of defense and the people at the armed 
forces loved her.

Besides her personal career, she represents the continuation of the 
reigning political alliance, which has done quite a good job and 
promises better conditions than the right-winged opositon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Bachelet
--

> From my perspective as an American, the biggest implication of her 
>election is probably the confirmation of the leftward trend in South 
>American leaders. First Chavez, then Morales, now Bachelet. Admittedly, 
>she doesn't seem as far left economically as Morales, but I still think 
>it shows a strong sense of independence and a reaction to the policies 
>that the World Bank and the IMF have tried to push on SA. 
>
Yes, this government won't go as far as Chavez or Morales, my impression 
is that here in Chile the Socialism is only in the name of the party, 
the economic model is pretty much 100% capitalist, very company-driven. 
Chile has signed FTAs in these last 5? years, with the US, EU, China, 
Korea, and Japan (maybe India as well, can't remember now). But you're 
still right in saying that there are some clues towards some sort of 
regional socialist governments, stronger collaboration between our 
countrys could bring some good things.

>I'll be very 
>interested to see what impact this election has on CAFTA. Hopefully 
>we'll see a greater emphasis put on environmental and social concerns in 
>trade agreements in the future to produce more equitable trade amongst 
>neighboring countries.
>  
>
Amen to that! I'm all for stronger anvironmental and social protection 
mechanisms.


>did you know that cuba and venezuela are sponsoring health programs for the
>poor in the United States?  to them the US is the 4th world.
>  
>
didn't know about that, cool!