Chile. Patricio Aylwin is the first democratically elected president since Pinochet. The center-left Concertacion alliance will also win the next four elections (1990, 1993, 2000, 2006). The presidents will be the Christian Democrats Patricio Aylwin and Eduardo Frei Jr. (son of the previous president Eduardo Frei, who nationalized American copper mines), and then the Socialists Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet (daughter of a general who had been tortured and imprisoned by Pinochet). Then, in 2010, the Concertacion will be defeated by a right-wing alliance that will bring Sebastian Pinera to the presidency, but in 2014, Bachelet will return to power. Chile proves itself a mature democracy, despite heavy compromises. New governments of all political stripes will also continue the neoliberal-inspired free-market policies established by Pinochet’s Chicago Boys. The center-left Concertation alliance will push this economic policy to its extreme, dismantling all trade barriers. Chile will experience a period of unprecedented prosperity, propelling it to the forefront of South American economies. Pinochet will remain head of the armed forces until his retirement in 1998, at the age of 83.
