Soledad Alvear Valenzuela
PEOPLE PROFILE is published every Tuesday and describes the professional background of key people emerging in the political and economic scenario.
Who is Soledad Alvear Valenzuela?
She is the foreign minister of Chile. A socialist, she is one of the most popular
politicians in the country and a likely runner in the presidential elections
due in 2006. She is one of only two women in the current cabinet: the other
is Michelle Bachelet, the defence minister. Alvear sprung to prominence in the
Gulf War earlier this year, when Chile, a temporary member of the UN Security
Council, surprised many by opposing US policy in the war.
Why watch her?
She has charisma and is one of President Ricardo Lagos's favourite ministers.
Opinion polls show that she is seen as a potential president. She is the great
hope of the fraying Concertación alliance between Socialists and Christian
Democrats, which has ruled Chile since democracy returned in 1989. Her first
hurdle is the internal elections in which she will come up against first other
Socialists and then rivals from the Christian Democrats. Then she will have
to defeat the resurgent right.
The file
Born: 17 September 1950
Place of birth: Santiago, Chile
Education:
She is a lawyer. She graduated from the Universidad de Chile. She did a postgraduate
degree in Development Science at Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios Sociales
(ILADES), whose qualifications are recognised by the Catholic University of
Louvain in Belgium.
Public life:
She is married to Gutenberg Martínez, and has three children: Claudia,
Carlos and Gutenberg. She was justice minister from 1994 to 2000, during the
administration of President Eduardo Frei.
Timeline
1990-1994: In the government of President Patricio Aylwin, she was
minister/director of the national women's service. She founded the organisation
and drew up the equal opportunities' policy.
1994- 2000: She was minister of justice under President Frei (1994-2000).
In this job she launched an overhaul of the whole Chilean justice system.
1999-2000: In the second round of the presidential election campaign,
she ran Ricardo Lagos's ultimately successful campaign. She took a lot of the
credit for pulling the campaign around after Lagos failed to win outright in
the first round.
2000: She became foreign minister in March 2000. The main tenets of the
country's foreign policy on her watch have been: a strong Latin American bias;
enthusiasm for freer trade; respect for multilateral organisations, and international
cooperation.
2003: She was responsible for negotiating a free-trade agreement with
the (almost insignificant) European Free Trade Association. This was signed
in June.
2003: In June Chile finally signed the long-awaited FTA with the US and
Nafta.
Strong points:
She is the country's first female foreign minister. This achievement has elevated
her above a lot of criticism and increased her support. She has benefited from
the pragmatic foreign policy which has allowed the Lagos government to sign
free-trade deals with the US, Nafta, New Zealand, Korea, and the EU. Soledad
Alvear also represents a younger face of Concertación.
Weak points:
Although she personally has not made many mistakes, she will have to overcome
the high level of public disapproval with the Lagos government. The fight for
the presidential nomination is also likely to be tough, both internally and
against a revitalised right. She is likely to have her work cut out to defeat
the right, which is now stronger than it was in 2000, when it ran Lagos so close.
Prospects:
The elections in 2006 still seem some way off, but Alvear will have to establish
herself as a candidate in 2004. Currently, she is scoring approval ratings of
around 80%. This puts her in a strong position to see off the almost certain
candidate from the centre-right and former mayor of Santiago, Joaquín
Lavin.