Former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera died this Tuesday at the age of 74 in an aircraft accident in Ranco, an area 920 kilometers south of Santiago, when his helicopter crashed, according to Chilean media reports, including ADN Radio. Piñera, president for two terms (between 2010 and 2014 and 2018 and 2022), was the first right-wing president in democracy and one of the founders of Renovación Nacional, one of the main formations of the traditional Chilean right.
The former president, along with three people, including a woman and a minor, piloted a helicopter that belonged to him and survived. In this area of southern Chile, his family owns a house in Bahía Coique, from where they fly over Lake Ranco every summer.
This Tuesday was a rainy day in the area with difficult weather conditions. This afternoon, according to initial information, Piñera left the house of his friend José Cox and piloted a Robinson R 66 model helicopter.
Piñera has been married to Cecilia Morel since 1973, with whom he has four children, and worked for many years in the public administration of his companies. In the late 1970s he became credit card representative for Chile and since then his successive ventures have become increasingly ambitious and successful. He was a major shareholder in the airline Lan Chile (now Latam), the television station Chilevisión and Blanco y Negro, the company that manages one of the country's most popular football clubs, Colo-Colo. But this intersection between money and politics has not been free for Piñera: both his ability to make money and to use loopholes to his advantage have been his biggest Achilles heel in his political life.
Born in Santiago de Chile in 1949, he is the third of six children of Magdalena Echenique and José Piñera Carvallo, an engineer and diplomat who raised his children thanks to his work and was the founder of the Chilean Christian Democracy, the party he represented for decades the middle class. The reasons why the former president did not join his father's party and ultimately joined the right were never entirely clear.
The president died amid national mourning ordered by President Gabriel Boric over the deaths of more than 130 people in wildfires in the south of the country.
I feel the greatest pain at the death of my great friend and colleague Sebastián Piñera. A unique leader, a sincere person and a friend like no other who has always supported Colombia. My solidarity with his entire family.
Dear Sebastian, you will always be in our memories and… pic.twitter.com/ATle8pFpRk
— Iván Duque 🇨🇴 (@IvanDuque) February 6, 2024
Former Colombian President Iván Duque, who is very close to Piñera, sent a message of condolence on X, formerly Twitter. “I feel the greatest pain at the death of my great friend and colleague Sebastián Piñera. A unique leader, a sincere person and a friend like no other who has always supported Colombia. “My solidarity with his entire family,” he wrote. The president died amid the national mourning ordered by President Gabriel Boric over the deaths of more than 130 people in the wildfires in the south of the country.
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