Chilean Socialist Michelle Bachelet has easily won the runoff election for President, beating her conservative opponent Evelyn Matthei by beter than a two-to-one margin.  She promises to bring major reforms to her second term in office to deal with economic inequality and education issues.

The vote was 62 percent to 38 percent.  Voters already had high regard for Bachelet from her first term in office from 2006 to 2010, when her policies helped shield Chile from a sharp downturn during the global financial crisis (Chile’s Presidents cannot serve consecutive terms).  Bachelet won convincingly while promising to hike in corporate taxes to 25 percent from 20 percent, to pay for social reforms that include a gradual move to free higher education.  She has also promised to plug tax loopholes. 

Losing conservative Evelyn Matthei congratulated Bachelet on her win.  Matthei ran on an anti-tax platform at a time when most Chileans were concerned about moneyed elites paying too little.  She was closely linked to outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, a right wing billionaire who presided over what his party calls unprecedented economic growth (largely from mining), but which opponents point benefited the wealthiest people without ever “trickling down”.  Matthei and her family were also closely linked to the murderous, fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.