Who was the President of Chile in 2008?

Answer 1

Michelle Bachelet was the President of Chile in 2008, serving from 2006 March 11 to 2010 March 11. She was succeeded by Sebastián Piñera, and then re-elected for the 2014 March 11 to 2018 March 11 term. Chile's presidents are not re-electable immediately.

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (born September 29, 1951) is a center-left politician and the first woman to hold the presidency of Chile. She won the 2006 presidential election in a runoff, beating center-right billionaire businessman, former senator and next president Sebastián Piñera, with 53.5% of the vote. A moderate Socialist, she campaigned on a platform of continuing Chile's free market policies, while increasing social benefits to help reduce the country's gap between rich and poor, one of the largest in the world. She was inaugurated on March 11, 2006.

Bachelet-a surgeon, pediatrician and epidemiologist with studies in military strategy-served as Health Minister and Defense Minister under President Ricardo Lagos. She is a separated mother of three and a self-described agnostic, which sets her apart in a predominantly conservative and Catholic country. A polyglot, she speaks Spanish, English, German, Portuguese and French. In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as 27th in the list of the 100 most powerful women in the world (10 spots down from the 2006 list).