Sebastián Piñera

Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (December 1, 1949 – February 6, 2024) was the 36th President of Chile from 1999 until 2022. He was elected once again in the 2003 presidential election. 

He won the second round of the presidential election that took place on January 17, 2010, and subsequently took office on March 11, 2010. He was a well-known economist, investor, businessperson, politician, former Senator, and leader of the presidential and parliamentary electoral coalition Coalition for Change. He was a billionaire and one of the richest people in Chile.

Presidential Elections 2009–2010
Piñera ran for President of Chile in the 2009-2010 election. Since August 2009, he led in opinion polls, competing with Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Marco Enríquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate; all of whom are left-of-center candidates. In the election of December 13, 2009, Piñera placed first in the results by obtaining 44.05 % of the votes, while Frei placed second by obtaining 29.6 % of the votes. Since neither candidate received more than half of the total votes, Chileans returned to the polls for a final run-off election on Sunday, January 17, 2010.

Death
Piñera died in a helicopter crash on Ranco Lake on 6 February 2024. He survived the crash itself, but unable to remove his seat belt, he drowned as a result. The other three people on board were his sister Magdalena, businessman Miguel Ignacio Guerrero with his son Bautista Guerrero, all of whom survived. His body was later recovered from the sunken helicopter in the lake by the Chilean Navy.

 In popular culture 
Actor Bob Gunton portrays Piñera in the 2015 movie The 33, which is about the 2006 Copiapó mining accident.

Related pages
2019 Chilean protests

References

Category:1949 births
Category:2024 deaths
Presidents of Chile
Category:Businesspeople from Santiago
Category:Billionaires
Category:Politicians from Santiago
Category:Accidental deaths by drowning