Published: January 17, 2006
U.S. Congratulates Bachelet for Winning Chilean Presidency
By Eric Green, Washington File
Michelle Bachelet elected January 15 as Chile's first woman president
The United States has congratulated Michelle Bachelet on her election January 15 as the first woman president of Chile.
In a January 16 statement, White House spokeswoman Christie Parell commended the people of Chile on another election that she said demonstrates the South American nation's "strong commitment to democracy."
Parell said the United States has an "excellent, long-standing relationship with Chile" and looks forward "to working with the new president and her team."
Bachelet won about 53 percent of the vote in Chile's presidential election runoff, compared to about 47 percent for businessman Sebastian Pinera.
Bachelet will take office March 11. She succeeds the outgoing president, Ricardo Lagos. During Lagos's July 2004 visit to the White House, President Bush described U.S.-Chilean relations as "strong [and] important."
Meanwhile, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) noted that even though Bachelet is the first woman president in Chile, women previously have been elected to the presidency in three other countries in Latin America. Violeta Chamorro was elected president in Nicaragua in 1990, Mireya Moscoso was elected president in Panama in 1999 and Janet Rosenberg Jagan was elected president in Guyana in 1997.
The IDB said in a January 13 statement that the number of women holding political office in Latin America has increased greatly in the last 10 years, due to "greater democratic consolidation in the region, recognition of women's political rights, improved access to education, and the implementation of gender quota laws in 12 countries."
On that last point, the IDB said that in Colombia, for example, a legal requirement states that women must comprise 30 percent of the appointed positions in the nation's executive branch.
The IDB said that as of November 2005, Latin America has had a total of 429 women as government ministers, 243 of whom were appointed from 1995-2005. Together, Colombia and Venezuela comprise 23 percent of this total, said the IDB.
The increased presence of women in Latin American government positions highlights an "important shift in political inclusion" in the region, said the IDB. But it added that "considering that 50 percent of the region's population is female," women "still have a long way to go" to increase their representation in the governments of Latin America.
Source: U.S. Department of State
Search News
