The 74-year-old billionaire tycoon has died in a crash within the in style trip spot Lago Ranco in southern Chile.
Chile’s former President Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire tycoon who twice held the South American nation’s prime job, has died in a helicopter crash, his workplace mentioned in a press release.
“It is with deep regret that we announce the death of the former president of the Republic of Chile,” mentioned the assertion on Tuesday, including that 74-year-old Pinera had died within the in style trip spot Lago Ranco, some 920km (570 miles) south of Santiago.
Chile Interior Minister Carolina Toha confirmed the demise of the previous president. No additional particulars have been instantly launched about the reason for the accident.
Chile’s nationwide catastrophe company SENAPRAD confirmed that one individual had been killed and three folks injured. The authorities didn’t instantly identify who was aboard.
Pinera, additionally a profitable businessman, oversaw fast financial progress and a steep fall in unemployment throughout his first 2010 to 2014 presidency, at a time when lots of Chile’s commerce companions and neighbours have been dealing with sharply slower progress.
His second presidency from 2018 to 2022 was marked by violent protests towards inequality that led to accusations of human rights violations and ended with the federal government promising to draft a brand new structure.
Pinera was the proprietor of the fifth largest fortune in Chile, estimated at some $3bn. He labored as a tutorial in a number of universities for nearly 20 years and as a advisor for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
As a businessman within the Nineteen Seventies by means of the Nineties, he labored in a wide range of industries, together with actual property. He held shares in main airways in addition to telecommunication, actual property and electrical energy firms. He additionally created one of many largest bank card firms within the nation. In 2009, he handed over the administration of his companies to others.
He entered politics representing the centre proper, which was the civilian assist of the army regime. At the identical time, he distanced himself from the 1973-1990 rule of General Augusto Pinochet, when greater than 3,000 suspected leftists have been killed or “disappeared.”
Pinera ran thrice for president of Chile. In 2006, he misplaced to socialist Michelle Bachelet; then in 2010, he defeated former President Eduardo Frei. Four years after his first time period, in 2018, he received a second four-year time period after defeating a leftist unbiased.
Twelve days earlier than the start of his first time period, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami claimed the lives of 525 folks and devastated the infrastructure of central-southern Chile.
Pinera’s authorities agenda was postponed in an effort to tackle emergency reconstruction. In 2010, he additionally led the unprecedented rescue of 33 miners trapped for 69 days on the backside of a mine within the Atacama desert, which captured the world’s consideration.
The occasion grew to become a world media sensation and was the topic of a 2014 film, The 33.
He closed his administration having created an estimated a million jobs.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/6/chile-ex-president-sebastian-pinera-dies-in-helicopter-crash?traffic_source=rss
