Michelle Bachelet

Family background

Bachelet is the second child of archaeologist Ángela Jeria Gómez (1926–2020) and Air Force Brigadier General Alberto Bachelet Martínez (1923–1974).

Bachelet's great-great-grandfather, Louis-Joseph Bachelet Lapierre (1820–1864), was a French wine merchant from Chassagne-Montrachet who immigrated to Chile with his Parisian wife, Françoise Jeanne Beault, in 1860, after being hired as a wine-making expert by the Subercaseaux vineyards in Santiago. His son Germán, born in Santiago in 1862, married Luisa Brandt Cadot, a Chilean of French and Swiss descent, and their son, Alberto Bachelet Brandt, was born in 1894.

Bachelet's maternal great-grandfather, Máximo Jeria Chacón, of Spanish (Basque) and Greek heritage, was the first person in Chile to earn a degree in agronomic engineering. He founded several agronomy schools in the country and married Lely Johnson, the daughter of an English physician working in Chile. Their son, Máximo Jeria Johnson, married Ángela Gómez Zamora, and they had five children, with Bachelet's mother being the fourth. The Bachelet Jeria household has been described as liberal, secular and progressive for its time: General Bachelet, despite his conventional military upbringing, took part in domestic duties, and his wife pursued an independent professional career; the general also had long-standing ties to Freemasonry as a member of the Grand Lodge of Chile.

Early life and career

Childhood years

Bachelet was born in the La Cisterna district of Santiago, She was named after French actress Michèle Morgan. Bachelet spent many of her childhood years traveling around Chile, moving with her family between military bases, including Quintero, Antofagasta, and San Bernardo. In 1962, she moved with her family to the United States, where her father was assigned to the military mission at the Chilean Embassy in Washington, D.C. Her family lived for almost two years in Bethesda, Maryland, where she attended Western Junior High School and learned to speak English fluently.

Returning to Chile in 1964, she graduated in 1969 from Liceo Nº 1 Javiera Carrera, a prestigious girls' public high school, finishing near the top of her class. She was class president, a member of the choir and volleyball teams, took part in a school theatre group, and co-founded a band, "Las Clap Clap", which toured local school festivals. In 1970, she entered medical school at the University of Chile, being admitted in the 113th position out of 160 applicants. She had originally intended to study sociology or economics but was persuaded by her father to study medicine, saying she chose medicine because it was "a concrete way of helping people cope with pain" and "a way to contribute to improve health in Chile". While at university, she was drawn into the Socialist Youth, influenced in part by young deputy Carlos Lorca, a fellow student leader at the medical school; her father, meanwhile, was appointed by President Salvador Allende in 1972 to head the Food Distribution Offices (JAP) tasked with combating shortages.

Detention and exile

When General Augusto Pinochet came to power via the 11 September 1973 coup d'état, Bachelet's father, who had refused to join the plot, was detained at the Air War Academy on charges of treason. Following months of daily torture at Santiago's Public Prison, he suffered a cardiac arrest that resulted in his death on 12 March 1974. In early January 1975, Bachelet and her mother were detained at their apartment by two DINA agents, who blindfolded them and took them to Villa Grimaldi, a notorious secret detention center in Santiago, where they were separated and subjected to interrogation and torture. A memorial to the victims of the dictatorship's repression stands today at the former Villa Grimaldi site.

In 2013, Bachelet said she had been interrogated by DINA chief Manuel Contreras there. She was later transferred to Cuatro Álamos ("Four Poplars") detention center, where she was held until the end of January. Thanks to the assistance of Roberto Kozak, Bachelet was able to go into exile in Australia, where her older brother, Alberto, had moved in 1969.

Of her torture, Bachelet said, in 2004, that "it was nothing in comparison to what others suffered." She and her mother were verbally abused and threatened with the killing of the other; she said she was "never tortured with electricity", although she witnessed it done to other prisoners.

In May 1975, Bachelet left Australia and relocated to East Germany, where she was assigned an apartment in Am Stern, Potsdam by the German Democratic Republic. Her mother joined her a month later and lived separately in Leipzig. In October 1976, Bachelet began working at a communal clinic in the Babelsberg neighborhood. During this time, she met architect Jorge Leopoldo Dávalos Cartes, another Chilean exile and a member of the Socialist Party's Central Committee, and they married in 1977. In January 1978, Bachelet went to Leipzig to study German at the Herder Institute of Karl Marx University (now the University of Leipzig). She gave birth to her first child, Sebastián, in June 1978. She returned to Potsdam in September 1978 to continue her medical studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin, enrolling under the name "Verónica Michelle Dávalos". Five months later, she obtained authorization to return to Chile.

Return to Chile

After four years in exile, Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979 and settled in La Florida. Her medical school credits from East Germany were not recognized, so she had to restart her studies where she had left off. She graduated as physician-surgeon on 7 January 1983, but her request to work as a general practitioner in the public sector was denied by the military government on "political grounds". She subsequently received a scholarship from the Chilean Medical Chamber to specialize in pediatrics and public health at the Roberto del Río Children's Hospital (1983–86), completing the program with excellent grades but never sitting the final certification exam for financial reasons.

Bachelet also worked at PIDEE (Protection of Children Injured by States of Emergency Foundation), heading its Medical Department from 1986 to 1990. Following the birth of her second child, Francisca, in February 1984, she and Dávalos legally separated. Between 1985 and 1987, Bachelet had a romantic relationship with Alex Vojkovic Trier, an engineer and spokesman for the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, an armed group that later attempted to assassinate Pinochet in 1986; her degree of involvement with the Front, if any, has been disputed, and Bachelet has denied ever collaborating with it. The affair became a minor issue during her presidential campaign.

After Chile's transition to democracy in 1990, Bachelet worked as an epidemiologist for the Ministry of Health's West Santiago Health Service and later for the National AIDS Commission (Conasida), while consulting for the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Health Organization, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit. During this period she began a relationship with fellow physician Aníbal Hernán Henríquez Marich, who fathered her third child, Sofía, born in December 1992; the relationship ended a few years later. From March 1994 to July 1997, Bachelet served as an adviser to the Ministry of Health under President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. Driven by an interest in civil-military relations, Bachelet studied military strategy at the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies (ANEPE) in 1996, finishing first in a class of twelve. This achievement earned her a presidential scholarship to continue her studies at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C., where she completed a Continental Defense Course in 1998, before returning to work as senior assistant to the Defense Minister and completing a master's degree in military science at the Chilean Army's War Academy.

Early political career

Involvement in politics

In 1970, Bachelet joined the Socialist Youth and was an active supporter of the Popular Unity government. In the immediate aftermath of the coup, she and her mother worked as couriers for the underground Socialist Party directorate, trying to organize a resistance movement, before nearly all of their contacts were captured and disappeared.

In the second half of the 1980s, Bachelet became politically active again, joining protests against the dictatorship and building ties with the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, where her mother was also active. In 1995, she became a member of the Socialist Party's Central Committee and, from 1998 to 2000, an active member of its Political Commission. In 1996, she ran unsuccessfully for the mayorship of Las Condes, a wealthy Santiago suburb, coming fourth with 2.35% of the vote against incumbent Joaquín Lavín, who was re-elected with nearly 78%.

Minister of Health

On 11 March 2000, largely unknown at the time, Bachelet was appointed Minister of Health by President Ricardo Lagos, the first woman to hold the post. She conducted an in-depth study of the public healthcare system that led to the creation of the AUGE plan a few years later. Tasked with eliminating waiting lists in the overburdened public hospital system within her first 100 days, she reduced them by 90% but was unable to eliminate them entirely, and offered her resignation, which Lagos rejected. Bachelet authorized the free distribution of the morning-after pill to victims of sexual abuse, sparking controversy with conservative groups and the Catholic Church; a legal challenge led the Supreme Court of Chile to ban the drug's distribution in 2001.

Minister of National Defense

On 7 January 2002, Bachelet was appointed Minister of National Defense, the first woman in Chile and Latin America, and one of the few in the world, to hold the post. She fostered reconciliatory gestures between the military and victims of the dictatorship, leading to General Juan Emilio Cheyre's 2003 declaration that the military would "never again" subvert democracy. She oversaw reforms of the military pension system and the modernization of the armed forces, including participation in international peacekeeping missions such as in Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina, expanded the possibilities for women to join the military, and implemented the Ottawa Treaty's provisions for demining. One key moment cited as a factor in her rising popularity occurred in mid-2002, during flooding in northern Santiago, when she led a rescue operation atop an amphibious tank. By 2003 she was the government's best-evaluated official after the president himself, and by early 2004 was already a favorite for the following presidential election, ahead of both Lavín and Christian Democratic standard-bearer Soledad Alvear.

2005–2006 presidential election

By the end of 2004, Bachelet's surging popularity in opinion polls made her the only politician within the Coalition of Parties for Democracy («Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia»; CPD) who was capable of defeating Joaquín Lavín in the presidential election. As a result, she was chosen as the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency. Initially hesitant to accept the nomination, as it was never a goal of hers, she eventually agreed as she felt she could not let her supporters down. On 1 October of that year, she stepped down from her government position to fully focus on her campaign and to support the CPD in the municipal elections held later that month. On 28 January 2005 she was officially named the Socialist Party's presidential candidate. An open primary was scheduled for July 2005 to determine the CPD's sole presidential candidate, but it was canceled after Bachelet's only rival, Christian Democrat Soledad Alvear, a cabinet member in the first three CPD administrations, withdrew early due to a lack of support within her own party and in opinion polls.

Ahead of the primary that never took place, Bachelet and Alvear had already faced each other in a televised debate in Hualpén on 27 April 2005, held in a moderate tone without major controversy, in which Bachelet addressed her relationship with Alex Vojkovic during the 1980s and her alleged ties to armed opposition groups, information that had recently surfaced in the press. Polling at the time showed Bachelet was widely seen as having won the debate, outperforming Alvear on most of the topics discussed. Sebastián Piñera's entry into the race in May 2005, competing with Lavín for the right-wing vote, drew away much of Alvear's centrist support, leading her to withdraw her candidacy on 24 May 2005 and confirming Bachelet as the Concertación's sole candidate.

Bachelet's campaign, run under the slogan "Estoy contigo" ("I'm with you"), emphasized her approachability and combined continuity with the popular government of Ricardo Lagos with the promise of a shift toward a "citizens' government". Her platform rested on three pillars: strengthening social protection (including pension reform, expanded preschool education, guaranteed funding for higher education, an expanded AUGE health plan, and a new ministry of citizen security), promoting economic development (maintaining the structural surplus policy while boosting support for small and medium enterprises and creating a ministry of the environment), and democratizing the political system (automatic voluntary voter registration, ending the binomial electoral system, and promoting gender equality and anti-discrimination measures, while stopping short of endorsing same-sex marriage).

First presidency (2006–2010)

First days

Bachelet was sworn in as President of the Republic of Chile on 11 March 2006 in a ceremony held in a plenary session of the National Congress in Valparaíso attended by many foreign heads of states and delegates. Much of Bachelet's first three months as president were spent working on 36 measures she had promised during her campaign to implement during her first 100 days in office. They ranged from simple presidential decrees, such as providing free health care for older patients, to complex bills to reform the social security system and the electoral system. For her first state visit, Bachelet chose Argentina, arriving in Buenos Aires on 21 March. There she met with president Néstor Kirchner, with whom she signed strategic agreements on energy and infrastructure, including the possibility of launching a bidding process to operate the Transandine Railway.

Domestic affairs

In March 2006 Bachelet created an advisory committee to reform the pension system, which was headed by former budget director Mario Marcel. The commission issued its final report in July 2006, and in March 2008 Bachelet signed the bill into law. The new legislation established a Basic Solidarity Pension (PBS) and a Solidarity Pension Contribution (APS), guaranteeing a minimum pension for the 60% poorest segment of the population, regardless of their contribution history. The reform also grants a bonus to female pensioners for every child born alive.

In October 2006 Bachelet enacted legislation to protect subcontracted employees, which would benefit an estimated 1.2 million workers. In June 2009 she introduced pay equality legislation, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work in the private sector, regardless of gender.

In September 2009 Bachelet signed the "Chile Grows with You" plan into law, providing comprehensive social services to vulnerable children from ages zero to six. That law also established a social welfare management framework called the "Intersectoral Social Protection System", made up of subsystems such as "Chile Solidario" and "Chile Grows with You".

Between 2008 and 2010 the Bachelet administration delivered a so-called "literary briefcase" (a box of books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, poetry works and books for both children and adults) to the 400,000 poorest families with children attending primary school from first to fourth grade.

In March 2009, Bachelet launched the "I Choose my PC" program, awarding free computers to poor seventh-graders with excellent academic performance attending government-subsidized schools. During 2009 and 2010 Bachelet delivered maternity packages to all babies born in public hospitals, which are about 80% of total births. In January 2010, Bachelet promulgated a law allowing the distribution of emergency contraception pills in public and private health centers, including to persons under 14, without parental consent. The law also requires high schools to add a sexual education program to their curriculum.

Bachelet's first political crisis came in late April 2006, when massive high school student demonstrations – unseen in three decades – broke out throughout the country, demanding better public education. In June 2006, she sought to dampen the student protests by setting up an 81-member advisory committee, including education experts from all political backgrounds, representatives of ethnic groups, parents, teachers, students, school owners, university rectors, people from diverse religious denominations, etc. Its purpose was to propose changes to the country's educational system and serve as a forum to share ideas and views. The committee issued its final report in December 2006. In August 2009, she signed the education reform bill into law, which created two new regulatory bodies: a Superintendency on Education and a Quality Agency.

Foreign relations

During her first year in office Bachelet faced continuing problems from neighbors Argentina and Peru. In July 2006, she sent a letter of protest to Argentine president Néstor Kirchner after his government issued a decree increasing export tariffs on natural gas to Chile, which was considered by Bachelet to be a violation of a tacit bilateral agreement.

In early 2007, Peru accused Chile of unilaterally redefining their shared sea boundary in a section of a law passed by Congress that detailed the borders of the new administrative region of Arica and Parinacota. The impasse was resolved by the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal, which declared that section unconstitutional. In March 2007, the Chilean state-owned and independent public broadcaster Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) canceled the broadcast of a documentary about the War of the Pacific after a cautionary call was made to the stations' board of directors by Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Alejandro Foxley, apparently acting on demands made by the Peruvian ambassador to Chile; the show was finally broadcast in late May of that year. In August 2007 the Chilean government filed a formal diplomatic protest with Peru and summoned home its ambassador after Peru published an official map claiming a part of the Pacific Ocean that Chile considers its sovereign territory. Peru said this was just another step in its plans to bring the dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In January 2008 Peru asked the court to consider the dispute, prompting Bachelet to summon home the Chilean ambassador in Lima for consultations. Rather than seek out confrontation, Bachelet's diplomatic instincts during this period generally leaned toward avoiding overt escalation with Bolivia as well; when reports emerged that her government might be open to discussing Bolivia's long-standing demand for sovereign access to the Pacific, Foreign Minister Foxley rejected the suggestion and reaffirmed that Chile would not question the inviolability of existing treaties, particularly the 1904 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the two countries.

The United Nations Security Council election held on 16 October 2006, which saw a deadlock between Venezuela and Guatemala for the two-year, non-permanent Latin American and Caribbean seat on the Security Council, developed into a significant ideological issue in Chile and was viewed as a test for Bachelet. The governing coalition was split, with the Socialists supporting Venezuela's bid and the Christian Democrats strongly opposing it. The day before the vote, the president announced through her spokesman that Chile would abstain, citing the lack of regional consensus on a single candidate, ending months of speculation. In March 2007, Chile's ambassador to Venezuela, Claudio Huepe, said in an interview with teleSUR that Bachelet personally told him that she had initially intended to vote for Venezuela but then "there were a series of circumstances that forced me to abstain". The government quickly recalled Huepe and accepted his resignation.

Popularity

Bachelet enjoyed an approval rating above 50% for her first three months in office, during the so-called "honeymoon period". Her popularity fell during the student protests that year, hovering in the mid-40s. In July she had a disastrous public relations incident when a group of residents she was visiting in the southern city of Chiguayante who were affected by a landslide berated her publicly on television, accusing her of using their tragedy to boost her falling popularity. One woman demanded that she leave the scene so rescue efforts could continue. In July, after only four months in office, Bachelet was forced to reshuffle her cabinet, in what was the fastest ministerial adjustment since 1990.

Bachelet's popularity dipped further in her second year, reaching a low of 35% approval, 46% disapproval in September 2007. This fall was mainly attributed to the Transantiago fiasco. That same month she had a second negative incident when a group of earthquake and tsunami victims she was visiting in the southern region of Aisén received her bearing black flags and accused her of showing up late. The city mayor, who told Bachelet to "go to hell", later apologized. Over the following 12 months, however, Bachelet's approval ratings did not improve.

At the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, in September 2008, Bachelet's popularity was at 42%, but gradually her job approval ratings began to rise. When she left office in March 2010 her popular support was at a record 84%, according to conservative polling institute Adimark GfK.

The Chilean Constitution does not allow a president to serve two consecutive terms and Bachelet endorsed Christian Democratic Party candidate Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle for the December 2009 election.

Political interregnum

In April 2010, Bachelet inaugurated her own think-tank, "Fundación Dialoga". Its headquarters are located in Providencia, a suburb of Santiago.

Bachelet is a member of the Club of Madrid, the world's largest forum of former heads of state and government. Since 2010 she has also been a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, the leading think tank on Western Hemisphere relations and affairs, and served as the organization's co-chair.

UN Women

On 14 September 2010, Bachelet was appointed head of the newly created United Nations body UN Women by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, serving as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in that capacity. She took office on 19 September 2010. Under her leadership, UN Women helped secure agreement on eliminating and preventing all forms of violence against women and girls at the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. On 15 March 2013 she announced her resignation.

2013 presidential election

On 27 March 2013, Bachelet announced that she would seek a second term as President of Chile in the 2013 elections. The well-respected CEP released a poll in May 2012 suggesting that 51% of voters wished to see her become the next president, far ahead of any other would-be candidate. Bachelet had declined for most of Piñera's term to comment on a possible candidacy, but in the days after resigning from UN Women she returned to Chile on 27 March 2013, greeted by supporters at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, and confirmed her candidacy that same night at a public event in El Bosque.

On 30 June 2013, Bachelet became the Nueva Mayoría's candidate for president after she won a four-way primary election with the support of five center and left parties (PS, PPD, PC, IC, MAS) and 73% of the vote. Her campaign, run under the slogan "Yo quiero Chile" ("I want Chile"), centered on drafting a new constitution, establishing free higher education, and a tax reform to finance it, without dwelling on details that could fracture her broad base of support; it also sought the support of those who had taken part in the 2011–13 Chilean student protests against the Piñera government. On 7 October 2013, Bachelet presented a document listing 50 measures to be carried out in the first hundred days of a prospective government, and on 27 October unveiled her full platform, which proposed free education at all levels within six years, an end to for-profit schooling, reform of the binomial electoral system, a tax reform, and the drafting of a new constitution, among other measures.

In the 17 November 2013 presidential election, Bachelet fell short of the absolute majority needed for an outright win. In the runoff election, held on 15 December of that year, she beat former senator and Minister of Labor Evelyn Matthei with over 62% of the vote; turnout was significantly lower than in the first round. She became the first Chilean president to be re-elected to a second, non-consecutive term. Bachelet's proclamation as President-elect for the 2014–2018 term was confirmed by the Elections Certification Court (Tricel) on 10 January 2014.

Léo Pinheiro, a former executive of the OAS Group convicted of corruption as part of Brazil's Lava Jato investigation, told Brazilian prosecutors that he allegedly funneled money to Bachelet's 2013 campaign at the request of then-Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Bachelet denied any connection, stating she had "never had a link with OAS, nor with any other company". When Chilean prosecutor Ximena Chong traveled to Brazil in March 2017 to question Pinheiro, he invoked his right to remain silent.

Second presidency (2014–2018)

Bachelet was sworn in as President of the Republic of Chile for her second term on 11 March 2014, at the National Congress in Valparaíso. Isabel Allende, the daughter of former President Salvador Allende and newly elected President of the Senate, administered the affirmation of office to Bachelet, marking the first time in the country's history that both parties involved were women. Her second government pursued an ambitious and progressive program of structural reforms.

Domestic policies

Among Bachelet's main campaign promises for the 2013 election was the introduction of free university education in Chile and the end of profit-making educational institutions, as a response to the 2011–13 Chilean student protests. The intention was that revenue from the increase in corporate tax rate by 2017 would be used to fund free education. The proposals were criticized and quickly became unpopular due to the opposition from students who felt that the proposals did not go far enough in removing profit making. Opposition parties, lower middle class voters and certain members of Bachelet's Nueva Mayoría coalition attacked the proposals as the law that would prevent individuals from earning profits on public resources would not address making improvements in quality of education.

In 2015, the Chile Constitutional Court rejected large portions of Bachelet's plan to offer free college education to half of the nation's poorest students on grounds that requiring them to attend certain schools participating in the program could be considered discrimination. However, what remained of the plan allowed Bachelet to send 200,000 students from low-income families to college free of cost.

In January 2018, the Chilean Senate passed a law guaranteeing free education which was supported by conservative opposition parties as well, allowing the poorest 60% of students to study for free and doubled state funding for public universities. The new legislation created a higher education Superintendent empowered to supervise and penalize institutions which do not provide quality of education or have for-profit operations. Alongside the free-tuition reform, Bachelet's government moved to "de-municipalize" public schooling, transferring control of public schools away from municipal governments and abolishing school co-payments.

In September 2014, the Chilean Congress passed Bachelet's tax reform proposal which aimed to increase revenue by 3% of gross domestic product. Measures included in the reform were:

increased corporate tax rate from 20% to 25% or 27%

the maximum tax bracket for personal income tax lowered to 35 percent from 40 percent starting in 2018

Foreign relations

On 8 March 2018, three days before Bachelet left office, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) multilateral trade agreement was signed in Santiago with Chile and 10 other signatory countries in the Asia Pacific region, following renegotiation of the original Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which was signed in February 2016. The TPP was renegotiated into the CPTPP following the United States' withdrawal from the original TPP in January 2017.

Popularity

In September 2015, Bachelet's approval rating was 24%, compared to 72% disapproval. Chileans' support for her dropped sharply after revelations of corruption scandals such as the Caval scandal, which involved her son and daughter-in-law accepting millions of dollars in the form of a loan from vice-chairman of the Banco de Chile Andrónico Luksic Craig. The couple's company (Caval) used the money to purchase land and resell it at a $5 million profit after repaying the loan. Bachelet maintains that she was unaware of her family's actions and found out about the agreement between Luksic and her daughter-in-law through the press. By August 2016, Bachelet's approval rating dropped to 15%, the lowest for any President since the return of free elections in 1990, and in March 2017, Bachelet's approval rating remained low, at about 23%.

Bachelet left office in March 2018 with an approval rating at 39% according to Adimark, in contrast to the 84% rating when she left office in 2010.

First post-presidency roles (2018)

While still serving as president, in January 2018 Bachelet accepted the future presidency of the World Health Organization's Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, to take effect once her term ended. She handed over the presidential sash to Sebastián Piñera for a second time on 11 March 2018, and succeeded Graça Machel as head of the alliance on 20 May 2018. In August 2018, Bachelet launched the Fundación Horizonte Ciudadano, described in Chilean media at the time for its youth-oriented branding and use of inclusive language.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2018–2022)

On 8 August 2018, Bachelet was nominated by Secretary-General António Guterres to become United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and her nomination was confirmed unanimously by the General Assembly two days later. On 10 September 2018, Bachelet urged China to allow observers into Xinjiang and expressed concern about the situation there. She said that: "The UN rights group had shown that Uyghurs and other Muslims are being detained in camps across Xinjiang and I expect discussions with Chinese officials to begin soon". China called for Bachelet to respect its sovereignty. She took formal office on 5 September, succeeding Zeid Raad Al Hussein and becoming the seventh person to hold the four-year post.

On 3 September 2018, in her first act as High Commissioner, Bachelet demanded the immediate release of two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in prison in Myanmar for investigating a massacre of the Rohingya Muslim minority carried out by the Burmese army in 2017. On 7 September, she welcomed the Indian Supreme Court's decision to decriminalize homosexuality, saying "It's a fantastic day for India and for all those who believe in the universality of human rights." Two days later, she condemned death sentences handed down by an Egyptian court against dissidents over violent incidents connected with the 2013 dismantling of protest camps in Cairo following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi. On 10 September, after opening a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, she criticized Italy for blocking NGO rescue ships carrying migrants from entering its ports.

In September 2018, Bachelet criticized the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. She has called on Saudi Arabia to hold accountable those responsible for airstrikes on civilians in Yemen.

On 5 October 2019, Bachelet said she was "troubled by the high levels of violence associated with some demonstrations" during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, and stressed that any measures to quell the unrest must be grounded in law. She also stated that "Freedom of peaceful assembly … should be enjoyed without restriction to the greatest extent possible. But on the other hand, we cannot accept people who use masks to provoke violence."

Regarding the November 2019 Iranian protests, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a jailed Iranian lawyer, asked Bachelet to administrate an independent investigation into the alleged atrocities committed by the Iranian security forces in the uprising.

Second post-presidency (2022–present)

Following her departure from the United Nations, Bachelet remained one of Chile's most highly rated public figures. On 3 April 2024, she was elected unanimously as vice president of the Club de Madrid, representing the Global South and Latin America, succeeding Laura Chinchilla.

Nomination for UN Secretary-General

On 23 September 2025, Bachelet was nominated by Chilean president Gabriel Boric to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations upon the end of António Guterres' tenure in 2026. On 2 February 2026, President Boric officially registered Bachelet's candidacy, presented jointly with the governments of Mexico and Brazil. On 24 March 2026, the government of President José Antonio Kast announced that it had decided to withdraw Chile's support for Bachelet's candidacy, leaving her with the backing of only Mexico and Brazil. Despite this setback, her candidacy continued to enjoy strong regional support, with the governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico explicitly reiterating their backing.

Awards and media recognition

Ranked 17th most powerful women in the world by Forbes magazine in 2006 (she was No. 22 in 2009, No. 25 in 2008, and No. 27 in 2007). As of 2014, she was ranked 25th.

Defense of Freedom and Democracy Award by Ramón Rubial Foundation (January 2007).

Ranked world's 15th most influential person by Time magazine in 2008.

Shalom Award by the World Jewish Congress (June 2008).

Maximum Leadership Award (Argentina, October 2008).

Global Trailblazer Award by Vital Voices (October 2008).

South American Football Honorary Order of Merit in the Extraordinary Great Collar degree by CONMEBOL in July 2009. She is the first woman to receive such recognition.

Keys to the City of Lisbon (December 2009).

Woman of the Bicentenary at the 2010 Energy of Woman Awards by Chilectra (April 2010).

Federation of Progressive Women's International Prize (Spain, November 2010).

Keys to the City of Miami (November 2010).

The Association of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce in Florida's 2010 Award for Leadership in Global Trade (November 2010).

Member, Inter-American Dialogue (since 2010).

Washington Office on Latin America's Human Rights Award (November 2010).

Honorary degrees

University of Brasília (April 2006).

University of Siena (November 2007).

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (May 2007).

Federico Santa María Technical University (March 2007).

University of Essex (April 2008).

Moscow State Institute of International Relations (April 2009).

Ewha Womans University (November 2009).

Pompeu Fabra University (May 2010).

National University of Córdoba (June 2010).

Catholic University of Córdoba (June 2010).

Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (September 2010).

Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (November 2010).

University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle (November 2010).

Columbia University (May 2012).

Université de Montréal (June 2012).

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (October 2012).

Freiberg University of Mining and Technology (October 2014).

University of Paris VIII (2014).

University of El Salvador (2015).

Styles, honours and arms

National honours

Grand Master (2006–2010 and 2014–2018) and Collar of the Order of Merit

Grand Master (2006–2010 and 2014–2018) and Collar of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins

Foreign honours

Australia: Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (5 October 2012)

Ecuador: Grand Collar of the National Order of San Lorenzo (2010)

Finland: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (2007)

Hungary: Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2008)

Italy: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (9 October 2007)

Lithuania: Grand Cross with Golden Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great (23 July 2008)

Malaysia: Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm (2009)

Mexico: Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (2007)

Netherlands: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, The Netherlands (25 May 2009)

Portugal:

Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty (30 March 2017)

Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (7 November 2007)

Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (1 December 2009)

Spain:

Collar of the Order of Charles III, Spain (30 October 2014)

Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (26 February 2010)

Documentaries

Michelle Bachelet – Symbol des neuen Chile (Ebbo Demant/SWR, 2004)

La hija del General ["The General's Daughter"] (María Elena Wood/2006)

Publications

Bachelet, Michelle (2002). "Los estudios comparados y la relación civil-militar. Reflexiones tras una década de consolidación democrática en Chile". Revista Fuerzas Armadas y Sociedad. 17 (4): 29–35.