Concertación´s last days? 1/21/2010 Right-wing airline magnate wins presidential race.

Billionaire business magnate Sebastián Piñera won Chile´s presidential election Jan. 17. The conservative candidate, whom President Michele Bachelet defeated four years ago, effectively ends the two-decade rule of the Concertación Democrática. Piñera topped the ruling coalition´s candidate, former President Eduardo Frei, who governed Chile from 1994 to 2000, with 51 percent to Frei´s close to 49 percent.

"Democracy, which we exemplarily reconquered in the late 1980s, has given us this marvelous responsibility and challenge to guide the country´s destiny," Piñera told thousands of supporters in the broad avenue Bernardo O´Higgins in central Santiago.

"Chile is not the largest country, nor the richest or the most powerful in the world, but we should commit ourselves ... to making Chile the best country in the world," he added.

Some analysts said Piñera´s victory brought back memories of the rule of right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet´s 1973-90. Some supporters went to the streets carrying signs that read: “General Pinochet, this victory is for you."

Piñera, however, has said repeatedly he opposed Pinochet´s regime and voted in a 1988 referendum for ending Pinochet´s government, which was marked by thousands of human rights violations.  His Coalition for Change, however, which  includes the ultra-right wing Independent Democratic Union, or UDI, and the National Renovation party, has leading members who collaborated with the dictatorship, like Pinochet´s Economy Minister Hernán Büchi and the current Senate President Jovino Noboa.

Piñera, whose fortune is estimated at US$1 billion by Forbes magazine, has investments in real estate, an airline, media and professional sports teams. —Latinamerica Press.