A first for Chileans

last updated January 8, 2015

Valparaiso, Chile

Chile’s first female president took the oath of office this week, and promptly fulfilled a campaign promise by appointing women to half of the positions in her Cabinet. President Michelle Bachelet leads the center-left coalition that has run the country since the fall of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship 16 years ago. A 54-year-old pediatrician, single mother, and self-described agnostic, Bachelet was an unusual candidate in one of Latin America’s most conservative Roman Catholic countries. But her personal saga—she was tortured and exiled by the military regime—won over many skeptics. “There was a time in our history when we were divided, looking at each other with suspicion,” Bachelet said. “Now the time has come to look at each other again in the face, in the eyes.”