Ricardo Lagos Escobar

Lagos Escobar, Ricardo (rēkär'dō lä'gōs āskōbär'), 1938-, Chilean political leader. A lawyer and economist, he was an academic and served as secretary-general of the Univ. of Chile under President Allende, whom Lagos supported. After Allende's overthrow, Lagos taught abroad and was a UN economist (1978-84) in Chile. In the early 1980s he helped found the Alliance for Democracy and led it in 1983-84, becoming one of Chile's leading socialists and by 1988 a bluntly outspoken critic of President Pinochet, who had overthrown Allende. Lagos served as minister of education (1990-94) and public works (1994-99) after democracy was restored. The Socialist party candidate for president in 1999, he won the presidency after a runoff, becoming the first socialist to win it since Allende. As president (2000-2006) Lagos worked to liberalize Chilean society, Civilian control over the military and other constitutional reforms were passed, and human-rights offenses and other cases against Pinochet were pursued in the courts.