SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS): Chilean President-elect Michelle Bachelet is “a symbol of the re-encounter among Chileans, a sign of great hope and a reconciled country”, said Cardinal Francisco Errazuriz Ossa of Santiago.
Ms Bachelet, a member of the Socialist Party that forms part of the ruling coalition Democratic Concertation, won a run-off election with 53 per cent of the vote, defeating businessman Sebastian Pinera of the National Renewal party, who obtained 47 per cent of the vote.
Ms Bachelet received Cardinal Errazuriz and officers of the Chilean bishops’ conference at her residence on January 16, the day after the election.
Ms Bachelet “suffered hate, but she preferred to overcome this hate through comprehension, tolerance and, as she says, love”, Cardinal Errazuriz said after the meeting.
Ms Bachelet’s father, an air force general, Alberto Bachelet Martinez, was head of Chile’s food distribution program during the latter part of the socialist government headed by Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by a 1973 military coup that gave way to 17 years of dictatorship.
After the coup, the general was arrested and tortured, and he died in prison months later.
His daughter and her mother were arrested a year later and confined in a torture centre before being forced into exile to Australia, East Germany and the United States.
