Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique[b] (Spanish: [miˈɣel ˈxwan seβasˈtjam piˈɲeɾa etʃeˈnike] ⓘ; 1 December 1949 – 6 February 2024) was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022.

[1][2] A member of the liberal-conservative National Renewal party, he served as a senator for the East Santiago district from 1990 to 1998, running for the presidency in the 2005 election, which he lost to Michelle Bachelet, and again, successfully, in 2010.

[27][28] An additional project, Grupo Tantauco: Derechos Humanos, was proposed in hopes of beginning a reconciliation between the Chilean people who suffered human rights violations during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

[38][39][40] In July 2007, Piñera was fined approximately US$680,000 by Chile's securities regulator (SVS) for not withdrawing a purchase order after receiving privileged information (an infraction similar to insider trading) of LAN Airlines stock in mid-2006.

[45][46] In 1988, after Pinochet had lost the referendum on his continued rule and Chile was returning to democracy, Piñera offered his support for the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle in his pre-candidacy for president.

[59] Piñera's victory meant a shift towards the right,[60] breaking two-decades of center-left political leadership in Chile and I. the process becoming the first elected right-wing leader in 52 years.

[70] Piñera sold his 9.7% stake in the upscale private hospital Clinica Las Condes at a price of 25,113 CLP per share (US$48.00) through his holding company Bancard on Tuesday, 16 February.

[74] Cristián Patricio Larroulet Vignau, current Minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency of Chile, stated that Piñera was honoring his promise of removing himself from private corporations, as Chilevision will become the property of a non-profit organization.

[73] The option above did not take place in the end; Piñera decided to sell the TV station, and after a failed attempt in May 2010 with the Linzor Capital investment fund, the President announced it had sold Chilevisión to Time Warner, in late August 2010.

[78] Piñera first met with his new ministers one day later and issued a formal memorandum calling upon all members to renounce their positions in all private companies by 28 February to avoid conflicts of interest.

The memorandum also said that in regards to national heritage, secretaries of state whose affiliation with companies having direct receipt of fiscal monies must either remove themselves from those associations or honor the restrictions of their competitors.

[80] Among the milestones of his first government was the rescue of the San José mine in 2010, a year in which Chile lived the Bicentennial, in addition to the earthquake of February 27 and the subsequent reconstruction of the country after it.

[83] The same deputy recalled the past of the general appointed by Piñera as director of the Gendarmerie, Iván Andrusco, who had worked at DICOMCAR, a repressive body dissolved following the Caso Degollados (1985), and who had been forced to resign.

Despite much goodwill in Chile following this incident, he faced continuing opposition from Chileans calling for amendments to anti-terrorism laws on the grounds that Mapuche Indigenists could be treated as terrorists.

[89] During August 2011, Piñera's public approval declined precipitously amidst continuous protests, to the extent that some polls indicated that he was the least popular Chilean leader since Augusto Pinochet.

[98] Marcelo Bielsa, the manager of the Chile national football team, subsequently made headlines for his brief and cold greeting to Piñera in the farewell before the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

[101] Following his departure from power on March 11, 2014, Piñera dedicated himself to the creation of Fundación Avanza Chile,[102] a center-right think tank that sought to play an important role in the opposition to Michelle Bachelet's government.

In January 2018, Piñera unveiled his cabinet to harsh criticism: his interior minister, Andrés Chadwick, was a vocal supporter of Pinochet dictatorship, which had previously appointed him president of the Catholic University Students Federation.

[112] Chadwick and justice minister Hernán Larraín were also "supporters and defenders of the secretive German enclave Colonia Dignidad, which was established by the fugitive Nazi officer and paedophile Paul Schäfer in the early 60s".

[121] On July 31, 2019, Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera signed an agreement with the resident coordinator of the United Nations System in Chile, Silvia Rucks, on collaboration on immigration and refuge.

[122] Following widespread protests that broke out across Chile in October 2019 and the burning of multiple subway stations in Santiago[123] as well as public and private infrastructure destroyed throughout the country,[124] President Piñera declared on 18 October that Chile was "at war with a powerful enemy"[125] and declared a state of emergency, authorizing the deployment of the Chilean Army across the main regions to enforce order and prevent the destruction of public property, and invoked before the courts the Ley de Seguridad del Estado ("State Security Law") against dozens of detainees.

[137] Following the social unrest that erupted in late 2019, Piñera's diminished capacity to govern according to the principle of presidentialism led to claims that Chile was in a state of de facto parliamentarism or should become parliamentary.

For the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) was planned to be held in Chile along with the APEC summit, however, both events had to be canceled due to the political crisis at the end of the years, being the first reorganized in Madrid at the offer of the Pedro Sánchez government.

[167] In both 2023 and 2024, Former President Piñera made his administration's work team available to coordinate aid to the victims of the 2024 wildfires with the government of Gabriel Boric with whom he had phone calls, days before his death.

[178] Previously on a state visit to Peru in 2011, Piñera received criticism for his informal style after he revealed to Peruvian president-elect Ollanta Humala that he was a descendant of the Inca Huayna Capac.

[184] Carlos Peña was deeply critical of Piñera's failed public appearances, calling his improvised visit to Plaza Baquedano, the epicenter of the 2019–2020 protests, in April 2020 an act of "provocation and contempt" and "narcissism bordering on evil" (Spanish: narcicismo cercano a lo maligno).

[192] Some opposition politicians described his rhetoric as "irresponsible", while a Latin America editor for BBC News Online expressed concern about the impact his words would have on the protesters and on the chances for meaningful dialogue.

[193] Hours shortly after the President's speech, chief of national defense Javier Iturriaga del Campo appeared to contradict this declaration, asserting that he was "content" and "not at war with anyone".

[191] According to economist Carlos Tromben who studied Piñera's political discourse, the aim of this rhetoric was to rally the nation behind what was perceived as a common interest, but the success of this was variable.

[205][200] In an address from La Moneda Palace later that evening, President Gabriel Boric declared three days of national mourning and announced that Piñera would be given a state funeral to be organized by foreign minister Alberto van Klaveren.