Sebastián Piñera Echenique is an accomplished entrepreneur and politician in Chile. His track-record in business is outstanding after paving the way for the proliferation of credit cards in Chile by obtaining the exclusive rights to represent the two leading American multinationals within the sector consisting of Visa Corporation and Mastercard Corporation in the late 1970s. Nevertheless, the first foray of the Chilean entrepreneur and politician in business took place while finishing his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard University on a partial Fulbright Program’s scholarship when he completed a consulting project for the late prominent German-American Keynesian Economist Richard Musgrave. Accordingly, Sebastián Piñera Echenique pocketed $ 50 thousand as a retainer from the assignment and this was his start-up capital upon his return to Santiago, Chile. The year he came back to Santiago was 1976 after having completed several consulting projects for the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank or IDB and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean or ECLAC complementing his lucrative assignment with Mr. Musgrave. Soon after in Santiago, he utilized his consulting winnings for the launch of a real estate developing venture known as Constructora Tolten Limitada. Being successful in this operation he spearheaded the idea to represent Visa and Mastercard in Chile because he noticed that the use of credits cards for consumption was not popular yet in his home country as opposed to America where he spent a handful of years studying for his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard. Likewise, his brother José Piñera Echenique, having completed the same programs of his brother at Harvard, is credited for being the architect of the nation’s pension system, an assignment that took place during the dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet Ugarte and as a member of his cabinet. Today, Chile has the most modern private pension system in Latin America with a participation of over half the labor force, counting both active workers and retirees. Altogether, Sebastián Piñera Echenique finished his undergraduate degree in Commercial Engineering as first of his class at the prestigious Pontifical Catholic University of Chile back in 1971 before attending Harvard. The former research university is the best in Chile and currently ranked third in Latin America according to US News and World Report.
Moreover, becoming a lecturer full-time in Economics at several elite institutions of higher learning in Chile including his alma mater previously mentioned and known as the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile along with the University of Chile, the Adolfo Ibáñez University and the Valparaíso Business School while maintaining his credit card company representations on the side from 1976 to 1988, he decided to enter the business arena full-time in 1989. He sold his credit card business to the Santander Group beforehand receiving $ 70 million in the process. He also had a stint running Banco de Talca S.A., a regional commercial bank in Chile, after making a direct investment in it by acquiring over 10% of its outstanding share capital. At this organization, he ran into trouble when the regional bank failed to pay back a loan in the amount of $ 38 million to meet reserve requirements at the Central Bank. Accordingly, a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of violating banking laws. Overall, Sebastián Piñera Echenique spent 24 days in hiding while his brother José appealed the order. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court acquitted Sebastián Piñera Echenique of all wrongdoing shortly thereafter. Similarly, entering the business arena full-time in 1989 with a war chest built from his steady income streams including the sale of his credit card business and his previous tenure at Banco de Talca, his breakthrough in business came into fruition in 1994 when he participated in a consortium to buy voting and economic control of the Chilean airline and flag carrier of the country known then as LAN Chile S.A. from SAS A.B., the parent company of Scandinavian Airlines. This investment singlehandedly catapulted Mr. Piñera into the top of the Chilean business establishment. In fact, under the direction of Juan Cueto Sierra, a Spanish-Chilean entrepreneur with plenty of business interests and expertise in aviation, the operation grew immensely and the stock skyrocketed as a result. In 2007, however, Sebastián Piñera Echenique was fined $ 680 thousand by the Chilean securities regulator for insider trading after making use of privileged information to trade the airline’s stock. Consequently, he paid the fine and resigned from the board shortly thereafter.
Furthermore, Mr. Piñera had to divest his business interests including his LAN Chile’s 26% shareholding before assuming his first term as President of Chile to avoid possible conflicts of interests. Altogether, he received $ 1.5 billion in three different rounds in 2010 after selling his ownership stake in the airline and flag carrier of the country through a listed local holding company known as Axxion S.A. Accordingly, the Cueto aviation clan was able to buy most of it through another listed holding company in Chile known as Inversiones Costa Verde Aeronáutica Limitada. By the same token, Sebastián Piñera Echenique also sold his 90% economic interest in Chilevisión S.A., a national TV broadcaster, to what was then Time Warner Corporation for $ 160 million and his minority economic interest in the most popular professional soccer team in Chile known as Colo-Colo was liquidated as well along with minor portfolio participations in Quiñenco S.A., Enersis S.A. and Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. The $ 160 million from the sale of Chilevisión was later transferred as part of its endowment to his foundation created in 1973 known as Fundación Futuro. This foundation also owns and maintains the Tantauco Park, an attractive ecotourism destination located on the south end of Chiloé Island, part of the Los Lagos Region in southern Chile. This protected natural reserve encompasses 118,000 hectares of contiguous forests and swamps. His other foundations include Fundación Piñera Morel, Fundación Mujer Emprende and Avanza Chile. After these strategic divestures and incursion in philanthropy comprising his main business interests, Mr. Piñera was ready to enter politics in Chile before achieving enormous success in it having proven himself as a self-made billionaire and force to be reckoned with already at this point in time.
Sebastián Piñera Echenique was sworn as President for his first term in office on March 11th, 2010. The ceremony was marked by a small quake in the aftermath of the “2010 Chilean Earthquake” that happened the previous month affecting six coastal regions. An evacuation of the session held in the National Congress located in the coastal city of Valparaíso was carried out due to fears of a tsunami. Similarly, he had to deal with the economic damage and the death toll of the catastrophe, claiming 525 Chilean lives on February 27th, 2010, from the very beginning of his first presidency. On the other hand, having contended the run-off election with Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, he spent a total of $ 13.6 million from his own pocket to finance his first presidential campaign. By the same token, his victory meant a shift towards the right in Chile, breaking two decades of center-left political leadership and becoming the first elected right-wing President in 52 years having opposed back in 1998 the arrest and detention in London of the now deceased former dictator of the republic Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Soon after, he suspended his membership in the political party known as National Renewal, becoming unofficially an independent in his first term in office. He also divested his main business interests described earlier in the previous paragraph and placed the remainder $ 400 million of his net worth in a blind trust. Today, his fortune is managed by a very talented team of professionals led by Nicolás Noguera who oversee six investment vehicles registered in Chile, Luxembourg and off-shore in the Caribbean. The ownership of one of these investment vehicles, holding a substantial sum of the proceeds from the sale of LAN Chile’s stock and known as Inversiones Odisea Limitada, has already been transferred to his grown children. Similarly, his main investment vehicle registered in Chile is known as Bancard Inversiones Limitada. All of the investment vehicles, administered from his family office in Santiago known as Bancard.
Moreover, his first presidency had to deal with a mining accident in the Atacama Desert where 33 miners were trapped underground in a collapsed mine needing a rescue that took place soon afterwards taking 69 days to be completed. In fact, the event was televised live 24/7 globally because every miner had to be rescued one by one and the whole operation turned out to be successful in the end greatly boosting the popularity of Mr. Piñera from then onwards. Nonetheless, his first presidency was also marked by a disappointment consisting of the “2011-2013 Chilean Student Protests”. As a result, the national guard known in Chile as “Carabineros de Chile” had to be dispatched to restore order, peace and overall, speaking to the public in several instances on national TV, he was able to pacify the unhappy students with promises to reform the system. Accordingly, Mr. Piñera replaced Joaquín Lavín from his cabinet as Minister of Education with Felipe Bulnes Serrano and spearheaded the effort to make the entrance to elite institutions of higher learning more accessible to the masses among many reforms promised including all the levels of the education system in order to make it fairer and more equitable.
The second presidency of Sebastián Piñera Echenique was tumultuous. Defeating left-wing candidate Alejandro Guillier in a run-off election, he was sworn as President for his second term in office on March 11th, 2018. This time around, on the other hand, he officially ran under the right-wing coalition of political parties in Chile known as “Chile Vamos”. Soon after, the turbulence in his second term began with the adoption of legislation known as the “Women’s Agenda” because of massive feminist demonstrations. Likewise, his second presidency was tainted by the “Colonia Dignidad” scandal after members of his cabinet including his Minister of the Interior Andrés Chadwick and his Minister of Justice Hernán Larraín were initially supporters of it. The colony was a camp staffed with German colonists who were at the center of years of alleged child sexual abuse on the premises by Christian Ministers as well as torture and extrajudicial executions during the dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Another turbulent event were the series of riots between 2019 and 2022 known as “Estallido Social”, translated as “Social Unrest” in English, where demonstrations turning violent led to acts of vandalism across several regions nationwide. Accordingly, Mr. Piñera had to deploy the Chilean army in addition to the national guard this time around in order to restore order and peace. In fact, he declared a state of emergency on October 18, 2019 by invoking the state security law. He then removed Andrés Chadwick as Minister of the Interior before proceeding to take more drastic measures. The latter was impeached for his role in the riots and banned from holding public office for five years. Moreover, the riots were the result of discontent among the citizenry when the administration of Mr. Piñera raised the metro fare in the Chilean capital of Santiago. Altogether, the riots left 29 Chileans dead, over 200 injured and over 2000 arrests in Chile. The most important reasons protesters and rioters alike cited were the growing inequality in Chile and lack of upward social mobility. In fact, the GINI coefficient for income distribution in Chile went from 0.46 during his first presidency to 0.48 in his second term in office and was projected to increase even further then, just slightly below the average regionwide of 0.49 today. In similar fashion, yet another riot took place in Chile among the indigenous national tribe known as Mapuches in the Araucanía Region where arson attacks to private property became prevalent. Consequently, Mr. Piñera had to declare a state of emergency once more in that region in particular and proceeded to make negotiations and concessions to the demands of the tribe as well.
Nevertheless, one accomplishment of Sebastián Piñera Echenique during his second term in office was the effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic his government achieved. Overall, the nation attained one of the fastest vaccination rates worldwide and casualties from the pandemic turned out to be below the average rate globally. Towards the end of his second term in office, however, his reputation was tarnished by a corruption scandal leaked by the Pandora Papers. The scandal centered around a mining concession project, known as Minera Dominga, his administration gave a green light to continue despite being in an environmentally sensitive area. The affair also centered around a bribe a member of his cabinet received to let the project go through while enabling Mr. Piñera to beneficially participate in it as well implying a serious conflict of interest. Similarly, the perpetrator and head of the mining concession project was his childhood friend Carlos Alberto Délano who let Mr. Piñera obtain a miraculous one thousand percent profit during an 18-month period. Due to this leaked information, formal impeachment proceedings went ahead soon afterwards downgrading the political track-record of Sebastián Piñera Echenique. All told, the lower chamber of congress voted in favor of it but on November 16th, 2021 the Chilean senate voted against removing Mr. Piñera as President of Chile.
To conclude, Sebastián Piñera Echenique has proven himself both as an entrepreneur and politician with exceptional ability. In fact, ranked as a billionaire today by Forbes, he has achieved impressive success in his career as a self-made tycoon and politician after having been elected twice as President of the Republic of Chile. Likewise, his family as well as his voters comprising a majority of Chileans nowadays are extremely proud and grateful to him for having steered the country the right way and on the right track. On the other hand, dealing with adversity in his second term as President because of the prevailing discontent among Chileans due to growing inequality in the country, his response was a smooth one addressing the issue appropriately in order to solve it. Nevertheless, this is now an outstanding issue being addressed by the administration of Gabriel Boric to enforce promised reforms soon. Overall, Chile has witnessed an incredible success story in two fronts and this is something that should be highlighted for future generations of Chileans to study and emulate accordingly.