Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire tycoon who led Chile as president for two terms, died Tuesday in a helicopter crash aged 74, his office said in a statement. Three others survived the crash in the Lago Ranco lake district.
The 74-year-old Pinera often flew himself around in his own helicopter, and was a former shareholder in the country’s national airline, with stakes in television and football, among other businesses.
The crash took place in Lago Ranco, a lake district some 920 kilometers (570 miles) south of Santiago, where Pinera spent vacations with his children and grandchildren.
“It is with deep regret that we announce the death of the former president of the Republic of Chile,” his office said in a statement.
Three other people who had been in the helicopter survived the crash.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X that he was “surprised and saddened” by Pinera’s death.
“We got along, we worked to strengthen the relationship between our countries and we always had a good dialogue, when we were both presidents, and also when we weren’t.”
Pinera served two non-consecutive terms in office, between 2010 and 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022.
– Troubled second term –
In 2010, the economist with a Harvard education persuaded voters that society could gain from his individual business success.
He succeeded in restoring the right-wing to power after it had shed its ties to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990).
The leftist government of President Gabriel Boric, who succeeded Pinera in 2022, stated that “he will have all the honors and recognition that he deserves,” according to Interior Minister Carolina Toha.
In the course of his first mandate, he oversaw the successful rescue of 33 miners who were trapped in the Atacama Desert and oversaw the nation’s reconstruction efforts following a strong earthquake and tsunami in 2010.
His second term, however, was fraught with trouble, as rising discontent over Chile’s deep-rooted social inequality exploded into protests that started after a rise in metro fares.
A rich businessman seen as the embodiment of the country’s injustices, Pinera’s martial tone and early decision to deploy the military proved disastrous and failed to quell the growing demonstrations, accompanied by violence and looting.
Protesters demanded a change to an economic model in which healthcare, education and pensions were privately run and there was a massive gulf between rich and poor.
The unprecedented protests convinced parliament to agree to hold a referendum on changing the country’s dictatorship-era constitution.
Pinera, who did not suggest or endorse the change, once more gave the impression that he was disconnected from the people he was in charge of.
Voters have since rejected two proposed drafts of the new constitution, despite the overwhelming support for it, and Boric has declared that he is done trying to amend it.
With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the nation’s worst economic crisis in decades, Pinera’s problems only got worse.
He was later implicated in the Pandora Papers, suspected of a conflict of interests over the sale of a mine by members of his family to a close friend, and completed in a tax haven.
While the Senate blocked opposition attempts to impeach Pinera, he became the subject of a graft investigation.
Pinera ended his second term in office with low approval ratings.
At the time of his death, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $2.4 billion.
Pinera was married with four children and nine grandchildren.
