Chile puts forward ex-president Bachelet for UN top job

Michelle Bachelet waves during a victory rally in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo).

Chile on Tuesday put forward its former president Michelle Bachelet as a candidate to replace UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term ends next year.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Chilean President Gabriel Borick said Bachelet, 73, was the perfect choice.

A pediatrician by profession, Bachelet served as Chile’s only woman president twice -- from 2006 to 2010, and again from 2014 to 2018.

A member of Chile’s socialist party, she has also served as the executive director of UN Women and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Bachelet is not only a widely known and respected figure on the global stage, she is a woman with a biography deeply coherent with the values that inspire this organization,” said Boric.

The UN has never been led by a woman in its 80-year history, and has had only one secretary general from Latin America to date: Peruvian Javier Perez de Cuellar, who served from 1982 to 1991.