Sebastian Piñera

There was something enigmatic, a bit disconcerting, about the two-time President of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, tragically killed recently in a helicopter accident in Lago Ranco in southern Chile.

He was certainly a man loved by his extensive family and close personal and political friends. And, the outpouring of genuine respect from thousands of mourners of all political and social strata during his state funeral events belied the oft-heard opinion that Sebastian Piñera was not liked, that he was an unpopular President.  He was a practicing Catholic, one-time Christian Democrat moved to the right over time, enriched by his early entry into the banking and credit card business in Chile, part owner of the LAN Chile airline and the favorite national soccer team, Colo Colo. Simply put, Sebastian Piñera took full advantage of his place of privilege, a first class education in Chile and a Fulbright Scholarship at Harvard University where he earned his MS and PHD degrees, under the guidance of renowned economist Kenneth Arrow. 

I always saw Sebastian Piñera as a special type of Chilean. When he spoke, and when he represented Chile internationally, he did not project that attractive, likable Chilean personality so many Chileans have. He was stiffer, projected a forced toothy smile, often seemed to have on a shirt or jacket a size too large for his short arms. Although his close associates say he had a wonderful sense of humor, in public his attempts to joke or lighten the moment often ended up producing groans or simply silence. An entire book was written and widely circulated of his many “Piñericosas“, which his friends claim he, himself, actually enjoyed. A copy sits on my bookshelf in Santiago, next to another quick reference source of explanations of why Chileans are the way they are, “Lo Comido y lo Bailado” by Pablo Huneeus.

I recall watching the TV nervously during one of Piñera’s visits to the White House in Washington, wondering how he would be received by then-President Trump. I was appalled when out of the blue, Piñera showed Trump a mockup of a US flag with a small Chilean flag inserted in the center such that the blue, red, and white parts coincided. As if the visual wasn’t shocking enough, he explained how “Chile is in the heart of America”. Someone trying too hard, or not weighing enough his actions? I think for once Donald Trump was speechless. Piñera also asked Barack Obama, in another visit to Washington, if he could sit in the President’s oval office chair, which he did, long enough for a photo. He made you wonder.

Sebastian Piñera loved the natural Chile. In fact, he was a very rich man and owned a lot of it. He procured, then in 2005 donated, over 100,000 hectares of a large expanse of wilderness on the southwest corner of the Grand Island of Chiloe, named Tantauco (“Place where the waters join”). Like everything magnates like Piñera get involved in, there was controversy, the property reportedly was destined for clearing for lumber or massive extraction of wood chips by a foreign company, and was held in offshore ownership when he purchased it. Now managed by the family-run Piñera-Morel Foundation, this huge private park has been established officially to protect the marine and terrestrial natural environment of this very special part of Chile. Questions still surface on the financial details of the deal and the indigenous rights of the earlier inhabitants, the Huilliches, apparently compacted in the Tantauco Agreement in 1826 between Spain and Chile.

Piñera also owned several properties in the country’s most beautiful and peaceful vacation spots in the southern lakes region of his country, including on lovely Lago Ranco, Chile’s third largest lake nestled up against the Andes Mountains a bit east of the city of Valdivia. It is here that Sebastian Piñera’s life ended, as if he had written the story himself, piloting his helicopter back to his home after having lunch with friends and family. And as if more intrigue were needed, while he succumbed to the dark waters of Lago Ranco, his three passengers, including his sister, were being plucked to safety by friends who had witnessed the crash. Tragic, but not far out of character.

Being only an occasional resident in Chile over the 57 years since I was a Peace Corps Volunteer here, I have depended on several friends and colleagues for deeper understanding of the country and its politics than I could absorb from the daily newsprint media and historical literature. One such continuous source of loyal friendship and honest opinion of current events in the country was my friend and colleague from our time together on the Peace Corps staff in Santiago, Rene Lara. Rene, like Sebastian Piñera, died too young, leaving many projects undone, friendships dangling and a houseful of the most amazing collections of “stuff” I have ever seen one person gather.

One day late in the first Bachelet government, in early 20o9, Rene and I were talking about the upcoming presidential election in Chile. Rene, a committed progressive formed in the ranks of President Eduardo Frei Montalva’s “Revolucion en Libertad” youth movement on the 1960s, remarked that he felt very strongly that the progressive movement of the post-dictatorship governments of Aylwin, Frei, Lagos, and Bachelet (collectively called the Concertacion) was running out of steam, and possibly leading Chile again too far to the left. He felt that Chile needed a period of more conservative, business-minded leadership, one that would keep economic growth on the rise and further insert Chile in the globalization trend, and that Sebastian Piñera was possibly the right person for the time. He said he would vote for Piñera, but he would do so fearing that if he were to be elected, the left, led by the Communists, would not let him govern. Rene saw the possibility of a Piñera presidency ending in street riots and eventually some type of civil strife.

Rene’s vote was one of a majority that in 2009 elected Piñera, Chile’s first conservative president since the return to democratic rule in 1990. In a fateful way, the circumstances that Piñera faced immediately upon taking office, the destructive earthquake and tsunami of February 27, 2010, validated Chileans choice of a leader for that time. Above all else, Piñera was a manager, a pragmatic businessman who could get things done. He could think big. He picked up the baton from exiting President Michelle Bachelet and over the next four years led a most remarkable disaster recovery effort, using his connections and management skills to join public and private sector resources to rebuild the swath of central Chile devastated by these natural events.

It was also during his first year in office, while the earthquake reconstruction was still at full steam, that 32 Chilean miners and one Bolivian were rescued after being trapped for 69 days, 2,300 feet underground in the San Jose mine in northern Chile. The whole world watched the slow but successful extraction process, as one-by-one the relieved and ecstatic miners slowly but surely reached the surface, first embracing their loved ones, but then the classic Chilean rib-cracking hug, the abrazo, with President Sebastian Piñera. I watched, cheering every time one miner resurfaced, with others around the bar in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, where I was attending a World Food Prize event. To celebrate, feeling a deep pride of close association with Chile and this accomplishment, I went that night with several colleagues to have what may be the world’s best pork chop dinner, at the 801 Chophouse, footing the bill for several bottles of Tarapaca Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, one of Chile’s finest classic wines.

Piñera is recognized for his persistence in pursuing the rescue of these men, personally insisting on bringing to Chile the best expertise and technology, to first reach the miners and then bring them safely to the surface. Piñera claimed he carried in his pocket, wherever he went thereafter, the note the miners sent up to the top, proclaiming that they were alive and well: “Estamos bien, los 33“! That note represented to Sebastian Piñera the reason he had been elected President of Chile, and a clear sign of his success as a leader. It was probably his proudest moment and accomplishment, and it is entirely within his character to have that note, proof of his accomplishment, to show far and wide when travelling throughout the world. Several of the rescued miners attended his funeral and stood guard of honor over his casket, proud hard hats in place.

Even though Rene’s concern that Piñera would not be allowed to govern did not turn out to be the case during this first term, his four-year term ended with low approval ratings and increasing pressure from civic groups and the opposition parties for better social services, free and better education, more inclusive health care, and better pensions. His managerial talents in the earthquake recovery and the miner’s rescue buoyed his presidency to the end of that term. However, he was not popular enough to ensure the hand off of the presidential baton to a candidate from his right wing coalition, so Michelle Bachelet returned for a second four-year term for her now more leftist “Nueva Mayoria“.

By the time Sebastian Piñera returned to the presidency in 2018, Chile was experiencing an economic slowdown, increased social unrest, and a growing clamor, entertained openly by President Bachelet and her supporters, for a rewrite of the constitution. There was a growing call from the left for a total rewrite of the constitution signed in 1980 by Pinochet, but amended considerably over the years since, such that the version applicable at the time of Pinera’s second term was actually signed by Ricardo Lagos and other authorities in 2005.

Piñera ran for his second term on a platform that rejected a rewrite of the Chilean constitution. So when he took over, he filed away the draft proposal Bachelet had prepared in her last days as President. He did so believing that a process to rewrite the constitution would distract from other more important and urgent issues, and besides, he and his supporters did not think it was necessary.

During his second term, Piñera basked in what he and many others thought was a perfect time for Chile to show its successes to the rest of the world. Chile was to host an important summit meeting of the Asian-Pacific trade pact APEC, and the COP25 signing of the Paris environmental agreement in late 2019. I was thrilled by the idea of holding these two important gatherings of world leaders of trade and environment in Chile. The country could show off its leadership and commitment to free and open global trade, and the growing environmental programs including important projects in green energy production throughout the country. These were the things, the big things, Piñera most enjoyed promoting and showing off. One can only imagine how excited he was at the prospect of taking world leaders, both economic and environmental, to show off his Tantauco reserve in southern Chiloe Island.

Due to the growing civil strife of the “estallido” in September 2019, Piñera had to desist from hosting these two large and important meetings in Chile. His, and Chile’s, big chance to show off a medium-sized, middle-income, democratically-governed country playing a mature role in key international affairs went up in the smoke emanating from Santiago’s burning Metro stations and the torched barricades, churches, and stores around Plaza Baquedano. Piñera’s dissapointment must have been tremendous. Mine certainly was, but I’m not very sure that many Chileans paid much attention to the lost opportunities for the country. They were much more concerned, probably rightly so, about the protests and street violence throughout the country, and the possibility of an early end to the Piñera government.

So, my friend Rene Lara’s worry that “they” wouldn’t let Piñera govern if he were president almost came true. Piñera was a hair’s breadth away from calling out the military to calm the streets, which most analysts believe would have led to many deaths and possibly more serious civil strife. He did not do it. Instead, he called on the broad range of leaders to draw up an agreement to get Chile out of the political dilemma they had created. And, as they like to say, the rest is history. (My view of that history you can read, or reread as the case may be, in prior postings on this blog.)

President Sebastian Piñera believed that he, and Chile, had an important place on the global stage. But the global stage is fraught with trap doors, false ceilings, two-way mirrors, and those machines that create spontaneous crowd applause and acclaim with the push of a button. In early 2019, Piñera was very concerned that Chile not become the economic disaster that is Venezuela. You could say he was obsessed with Maduro’s Venezuela. When the President of Colombia, in support of then Venezuelan opposition President Juan Guaido, organized a border crossing between Colombia and Venezuela at Cucuta to provide trucks of humanitarian relief  supplies to Venezuelans, Piñera could not resist advice to the contrary, and joined in.

The whole exercise that was supposed to end Maduro’s control over Venezuela failed, so for many, it was a mistake for Piñera to participate. But while he was there, probably caught up in the early illusion that the exercise he was a part of would eventually free Venezuelans of Maduro’s grasp, and the fact that Venezuelans were truly suffering the scarcities of basic foods and medicines, he one way or another left the impression that Venezuelans were welcome in Chile where there would be employment for all. Early this year he claimed publicly that he never actually made that clear an invitation to emigrate to Chile, but he did proceed to establish a mechanism that facilitated the immigration to Chile of political and economic refugees from Venezuela. In her prior time in office, Michelle Bachelet had facilitated a similar but smaller influx of Haitians to Chile.

The complexity of the Venezuelan situation into which Sebastian Piñera dove head first that day in Cucuta continues to play out in Chile. Chile’s immigrant population is now about 10% of the population, including close to a million Venezuelans. Increased levels of violence in Chile are too easily associated with the influx of immigrants from more insecure countries in South America, not only Venezuela but also Colombia. The negative feelings in the Chilean population towards immigration is not unlike that in parts of the US where immigration is greatest and often not well controlled or regulated.

But, no matter where you go in Chile, you are apt to be served your food, gas, groceries, health and other services by immigrants from Venezuela. The concierge in our apartment building is Venezuelan. Throughout the past few years he has provided me with a daily comparison of what happened in Venezuela to what is happening in Chile, especially in terms of the increased concerns for personal safety and promises of subsidized benefits to be provided by a leftist government.

While long lines of people waited to pass by Sebastian Piñera’s coffin in the old parliament building in downtown Santiago, erstwhile (often intrusive) young reporters for CNNChile thrust huge microphones into their hot and tired faces, in the search for memorable comments about the ex-President.  Most noted his role in the 2010 earthquake recovery, the rescue of the 33 miners, and the program to vaccinate and protect Chile’s population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The responses were like a drumbeat of those notable accomplishments for which the citizenry was clearly appreciative.

By chance the microphone found a rather larger, darker, more expressive middle-aged woman, probably not Chilean, and the response took a different tone. This woman wanted to make sure everyone listening knew that she was there to thank President Piñera for making it possible for her and many of her Venezuelan compatriots to emigrate to Chile, where they could feed their families and work. She emphasized the idea that she and the others were in Chile working, working to help develop this country and maybe in the future return to theirs to do the same. Her message was clear, albeit with a hint of defensiveness, for she was surely aware and bothered by the suggestions quite rampant in the local discussion about personal security that immigration was a part of the problem.

This woman is why Sebastian Piñera went to Cucuta. He was surely sorry things turned out the way they did, and he probably never forgave President Duque of Colombia for drawing him into that mess, but I’m sure he smiled that wide toothy smile once again when he heard this woman so heartfully thank him for what she believes he did for her and many others, his willingness to take risks while others are more cautious.

It will take a while for historians to analyze, then judge, Sebastian Piñera and his two terms as President of Chile. For me, how close he came to being deposed as the democratically elected President of Chile will always remind me of my friend Rene Lara, and his clairvoyant prediction that “they won’t let him govern”.

May Sebastian Piñera rest in peace.

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Posted in Santiago, Chile, on February 17, 2024.

David Joslyn

David Joslyn, after a 45-year career in international development with USAID, Peace Corps, The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and private sector consulting firms, divides his time between his homes in Virginia and Chile. Since 2010, David has been writing about Chile and Chileans, often based upon his experience with the Peace Corps in Chile and his many travels throughout the country with family and friends.