Soledad Alvear
María Soledad Alvear Valenzuela ( born September 17, 1950 in Santiago de Chile) is a Chilean lawyer and politician. She is currently a Senator of the Republic of Chile and chairman of the Christian Democratic Party of Chile. She was the first Foreign Minister of Chile and in the selection of the candidate to the presidential elections in Chile (2005 /2006).
Biography
Soledad Alvear grew up in Puente Alto. Her father, Ernesto Alvear was as a sports official one of the organizers of the World Cup 1962. Soledad Alvear first attended the Liceo N º 1 de Niñas and then studied at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad de Chile. During her studies she was a member of the Commission on the choice of professors of the law. Thus began her political career, after she had already occurred with 17 years in the youth wing of the Christian Democrats. She graduated in 1972 with honors, but soon returned as a lecturer in civil law at the university back. Soledad Alvear is married since 1973 with Gutenberg Martínez as lawyer and politician of the Christian Democrats.
Political career
On the occasion of the National referendum on the continuation of the Pinochet government Soledad Alvear dedicated in 1988 under the leadership Patricio Aylwins for the Campaña del No. From 1991 to 1994 she was in the Aylwin Minister of State and Director of the newly founded Servicio Nacional de la Mujer ( SERNAM ). Then they took over the Ministry of Justice, which she held until the end of 1999. Subsequently, she was on the second ballot as campaign director for the campaign of the then head of the center- left coalition, Ricardo Lagos, who is responsible.
After the victory of Lagos over the candidate of the Alianza por Chile, Joaquín Lavín, it was Chilean Foreign Minister, the first woman. She had held the office more than four years. Among her greatest successes were the conclusion of free trade agreements with the United States, South Korea and the European Union, the deployment of a peacekeeping mission to Haiti as well as the active role of Chile as a non- permanent member of the UN Security Council, where she on to attack the United States Iraq agreed.
Soledad Alvear gave up the post of Foreign Minister in September 2004 in order to be let as a candidate of the Christian Democrats put up for president can. At the same time also put Michelle Bachelet, the former defense minister, resign and applied for candidacy for the block of PS - PPD PRSD. Alvear sat down at the vote of party members in January 2005 as a candidate of the Christian Democrats. The center- left coalition had agreed on the implementation of area codes to find a common candidate. However, the great advantage Bachelet against Alvear in various surveys, the entrance Sebastián Piñera in the election campaign and the little support from parts of their own party leadership caused her to withdraw her candidacy on May 24, 2005. This paved the way for Michelle Bachelet was free, which was eventually elected president. In June 2005, Alvear declared their candidacy for the Chilean Senate for the electoral district of Santiago - East. In the parliamentary elections in 2005, it achieved the country's best result with 43.6 % of votes.
As leader of the "dissidents" as party leaders Alvear decided to apply as a candidate for the leadership of the Partido Demócrata Christiano. On April 30, 2006, she won the vote with 68 % of votes cast. Since May 8, 2006 Soledad Alvear is the first president of the Chilean Christian Democrats.