MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's Bachelet marks first year anniversary with mixed record

Pte. Michelle Bachelet

Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first woman president, marked the first year anniversary of her government on Sunday. A darling of the international press, her presidency garnered unprecedented interest abroad by championing her liberal values in what was once South America's most conservative country. Still, she completes her first year with a mixed record.

Bachelet promoted human rights, made advances in the health and education sectors of the country, and also continued Chile's aggressive economic expansion by pursuing new free-trade deals all over the world. But Bachelet's first 365 days were much more complex at home. The sometimes embattled leader lived through grueling student protests, corruption scandals, the death of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, a heated debate on reproductive rights, and a hugely criticized public transit overhaul in Santiago. In early March Bachelet's approval rating dropped in the polls. Santiago's El Mercurio newspaper placed Bachelet's approval at 48 percent, down from 65 percent when she was sworn in as president last year. A subsequent Adimark poll found that Bachelet's popularity was only 42.7 percent in Santiago. But her rating improved outside of the capital city, standing at 53.6 percent. Bachelet's successesBachelet began her term by firmly placing human rights on Chile's national agenda. In October she visited the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park, a Pinochet-era torture center that was used to imprison, torture, or execute thousands of Gen. Pinochet's political opponents. Bachelet herself was held briefly in the complex with her mother in 1975 before being exiled to Germany, and her father, a supporter of overthrown President Salvador Allende, died in military police custody. Bachelet's visit to Villa Grimaldi was hugely symbolic â€" she became the first Chilean president to revisit an imprisonment site of former Allende supporters. Many right-wing Chileans accused Bachelet of attempting to stir up old divisions, but Bachelet defended her decision to remember Chile's divisive past. "Those who say that the discussion of history will divide us or keep us from performing our current duties are wrong," she said. "The more we remember what happened, the better we can fight to ensure that it never happens again." Bachelet was forced to deal with her country's still much debated history again in December, when Gen. Pinochet died following a heart attack. Hundreds of thousands of Chileans â€" both supporters and opponents of Pinochet â€" flooded into Santiago's streets, and what resulted can only be looked back on as a surreal carnival of the passionate and curious. Bachelet decided not to honor Pinochet with a state funeral and did not attend the military funeral he received. Many criticized Bachelet for not taking a leading role in the aftermath of the general's death, but the violence that many expected to occur never developed, and calm was quickly restored. Bachelet continued her socially-minded activism on many fronts. Her government gave out over 150,000 scholarships to take Chile's university admittance exam, and a new National Scholarship System was created that will award 1,250 post-graduate scholarships a year and send half of the recipients abroad. Chile's public AUGE healthcare system, which provides free coverage for certain conditions including HIV and some types of cancer, was expanded to cover 40 diseases in total. All Chileans over 60 years of age were also offered free health care, a benefit that will reach 135,000 people. Bachelet's government introduced an expansive tobacco control law late last year that placed warnings on cigarette packages, limited tobacco advertising, and created smoke-free zones in shopping malls, restaurants, and public offices. Chile's pension system was reformed, too, and the minimum benefits were increased by ten percent. Over 116,000 new jobs were created with financial support from Chile's government. Bachelet's socially minded programs were matched with Chile's firm belief in neo-liberal economic principles. New free trade-deals were signed with Panama, China, and Colombia, and deals with Australia and Japan are expected to be completed soon. Chile re-joined the Andean Community and maintained strong relations with the Mercosur trade bloc, in which it is an associate member. As the price for a pound of copper hovered around a high of three dollars, Chile's economic outlook had never looked better. The challengesWhile Bachelet's government had its successes, it was also plagued with controversy, and Bachelet was forced to clean up mistakes made by previous governments for which she took the blame. Furious student strikes rocked Chile in May, 2006, and Bachelet replaced her education minister as a result. Her government is expected to keep a firm eye on the situation, as student movement leaders meet next month to decide if they will continue with their demands for better school conditions and cheaper public transportation. In September, the Chiledeportes sports funding scandal dominated Chile's press for months. Millions of dollars budgeted for sports programs all over the country were allegedly directed into the political campaigns of various officials, and although the alleged corruption took place during the previous presidency of Ricardo Lagos, Bachelet suffered in the polls. Bachelet's push for reproductive rights was condemned by sectors of Chile's traditionally conservative society, and members of her own Concertación political coalition took issue with her efforts to make the morning-after pill available to teenage girls without parental consent. The debate exposed the first wide rift in the Concertación coalition since it restored democracy to Chile in 1990, and many political analysts said social issues could break up Bachelet's coalition and return power to conservative parties. Most recently, Bachelet endured heavy criticism for the Transantiago public transit overhaul in Santiago that replaced the city's vast network of independent buses with a government supervised system in February. Santiago's subway was flooded and the new bus routes were inefficient. Many Santiago residents could not get to work, several buses were hijacked by angry riders, and Bachelet's government was once again widely criticized. Although the Transantiago system was planned largely by Bachelet's predecessors, the embattled President once again pledged to fix the system and ordered her ministers to come up with a drastic solution this week. The year to comesAs Bachelet marks her first year anniversary with modest celebrations throughout the country â€" government officials scaled back larger celebrations because of the Transantiago fallout â€" even her supporters acknowledge the tough year in store for the President. Bachelet is tasked with combating corruption, correcting the Transantiago problems, and must also stay alert for possible strikes in the education and healthcare sectors. As Bachelet continues with her liberal social policies, she may also risk splitting up the center-left coalition that has governed Chile for more than 16 years. Bachelet must also continue to steer her country internationally. Unlike many of its neighbors, Chile walks a tightrope between â€" seeking and getting support from both the U.S. and Venezuela. As Chile promotes its friendly version of socially-minded capitalism to the world, Bachelet could not better represent the dynamic, divided, modern country that Chile is. What remains to be seen, however, is if Bachelet can muster the strength to attend to Chile's many domestic problems. By Nathan Crooks The Santiago Times