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Sebastián Piñera, former Chilean president, pictured in Santiago on November 16, 2017. Piñera died on Tuesday in a helicopter crash in Lago Ranco, Chile.
Luis Hidalgo/AP
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Luis Hidalgo/AP
Sebastián Piñera, former Chilean president, pictured in Santiago on November 16, 2017. Piñera died on Tuesday in a helicopter crash in Lago Ranco, Chile.
Luis Hidalgo/AP
VIÑA DEL MAR, Chile – Sebastián Piñera, the two-time former president of Chile who faced social unrest followed by a pandemic in his second term, died Tuesday in a helicopter crash. He was 74 years old.
The Minister of the Interior of Chile, Carolina Tohá, confirmed the death of the former president. No further details about the cause of the accident were immediately released.
As president from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022, he led the South American nation through devastating natural disasters, including the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami.
He also governed during the coronavirus pandemic and placed Chile among the top five countries with the highest vaccination rates against the disease.
His legacy is tarnished by the violent police crackdown in October 2019 against protesters demonstrating against the country’s education, health and pension systems dating back to the 1960s. 1973-1990 military dictatorship. International organizations cited massive human rights violations in the crackdown.
The social unrest eventually led to two attempts to update the constitution inherited from the military government, but both have failed.
Piñera was the owner of the fifth largest fortune in Chile, estimated at about 3 billion dollars. He worked as an academic at various universities for almost 20 years and as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
As a businessman from the 1970s to the 1990s, he worked in a variety of industries, including real estate. He owned shares in major airlines, telecommunications, real estate and electricity companies. He also created one of the largest credit card companies in the country. In 2009 he handed over the management of his business to others.
He entered politics representing the center-right, which was the civilian support of the military regime. However, when he served as an independent senator, he voted against the extension of dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
He ran three times for president of Chile. In 2006, she lost to socialist Michelle Bachelet; Then, in 2010, he defeated former President Eduardo Frei and was elected in 2010. Four years later, in 2018, he won a second four-year term after defeating a left-wing independent.
Twelve days before the start of his first term, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami claimed the lives of 525 people and devastated the infrastructure of south-central Chile.
Piñera’s government agenda was postponed to address emergency reconstruction. In 2010, she also directed the Unprecedented rescue of 33 miners trapped for 69 days at the bottom of a mine, which captured the world’s attention.
He closed his administration having created approximately 1 million jobs.
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