2 Women Lead Chile's Presidential Race

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/international/americas/20chile.html

2 Women Lead Chile's Presidential Race
By LARRY ROHTER New York Times

Published: December 20, 2004

"SANTIAGO, Chile - One is a Christian Democrat and a former foreign minister, the other a Socialist and former defense minister. They are the two leading competitors for the presidential nomination of the multiparty, center-left coalition that has governed this country since Gen. Augusto Pinochet stepped down in 1990, and both of them, for the first time here, are women. . . .

Dr. Bachelet, 52, is the daughter of a prominent general who died in prison, after being tortured, during the early phase of the Pinochet dictatorship. She was herself jailed and tortured, then forced into nearly six years of exile with her mother, first in Australia and then in East Germany, and returned to become a prominent pediatrician before entering politics. . . .

In contrast, Ms. Alvear, 54, has emphasized her more extensive and varied experience as a cabinet minister in three consecutive governments over a 14½-year period, including the justice and women's affairs portfolios, and her middle class values. As a Christian Democrat, she is seen as more conservative on social and economic issues and therefore perhaps better equipped to appeal to swing voters. . . .

Whoever emerges as the governing coalition's candidate will almost certainly face Joaquín Lavín, a leader of the pro-Pinochet Independent Democratic Union and the departing mayor of Santiago. He ran as the right-wing candidate for president in 1999 and came within a hair's breadth of victory, but his backers say that he will face an additional handicap this time."