Last month the sad news came through that Sebastián Piñera, former President of the Republic of Chile has died in a helicopter crash at the age of 74. Three other people aboard the aircraft survived when it came down in a lake near the southern town of Lago Ranco. Piñera was spending his holidays with his family in the lakeside resort of Bahia Coique, 920 kilometres south of the capital, Santiago. He often used his private helicopter to travel around the area and officials have confirmed he was piloting it when it crashed. He was described by aviation experts as an excellent pilot. Piñera had had lunch with a friend on the southern shore of Lake Ranco and was heading back to the northern shore when his helicopter ran into problems. It was raining at the time and there was considerable cloud. Piñera told the other three passengers, his sister Magdalena, a friend and the friend's son to jump from the helicopter while he manoeuvred it so it didn't come down on top of them. They did so and managed to make it ashore safely. However, for some reason Piñera was unable to free himself from his seat belt and went down with the helicopter.

Pinera came to power in 2010, the first conservative politician to be elected president after the end of military rule 20 years earlier. Unlike any of his predecessors Piñera was a highly successful businessman who made a fortune in the 1980s when he introduced credit cards to Chile through his company Bancard. He graduated in economics from Harvard. When he succeeded the country's first female president, Michelle Bachelet he promised to turn his business acumen to the country’s economy. This resulted in rapid economic growth during his first term from 2010 to 2014. But early on in his presidency he faced a most unusual crisis when 33 miners became trapped below ground beneath the Atacama Desert in 2010. As soon as he heard of this disaster he and his Minister of Mining immediately engaged with the issue. The Chilean Navy was instructed to find the technology anywhere in the world to build a capsule that could be sent down to rescue the miners. The Chilean Navy, which has some of the best engineers in Chile Including members of my wife’s family, did exactly this. They found technology they needed in the United States, built a capsule[i], and the 33 miners were rescued, having been trapped for 69 days.

Shortly after this, President Piñera visited London where my wife and I met him at a reception held by the Anglo-Chilean Society of which my wife was then Vice Chairman. He showed us the famous piece of paper which said “We are the 33”, which had been successfully sent to the top of the mine, so that the mining company and later the world knew they were still alive. I found Piñera genuinely charismatic, and certainly the best of Chile's modern presidents.

I have met three other Presidents of Chile. The first was when I lived there in the early 1980s and I met President Augusto Pinochet, the infamous dictator who had taken power in a coup d’état in 1973. I was then working for an American firm and so was a member of the American Chamber of Commerce which gave a breakfast for President Pinochet.  He gave a short speech and then stood and shook the hand of everyone there. However, when he shook my hand he wasn't even looking into my eyes, and I found him distinctly lacking in charisma. But although he is remembered for some of the atrocities that were committed in the early stages of his presidency, he should also be remembered that he took over the country when it was in a disastrous state with extremely high inflation, very high unemployment, and many other serious challenges. Together with his team, he successfully met all of these. And when he handed over power peacefully after a plebiscite, inflation had been brought down to world levels, the same on unemployment and the country was in a much stronger economic position, probably more so than any other in South America.

The next president I met was Ricardo Lagos who was president from 2000 to 2006 and I also met him on a visit to London. Although he was perfectly cordial, again, I found him someone uncharismatic. Lagos made numerous changes to Pinochet’s constitution; I think over 100. And all of these distinctly weakened Chile's economy as businesses were forced to look after workers’ rights to a much greater degree, making them uncompetitive.

I also met Michelle Bachelet who was president from 2006 to 2010, and 2014 to 2018. I was introduced to her at the Chilean Ambassador's residence at a reception. The Ambassador was then a wonderful man called Rafael Moreno with whom I became good friends. We had previously met at another Anglo-Chilean Society event when he asked me to explain the game of cricket. I said the only way that I could really do that properly was to take him to a game and watch it. I took him to Lords to watch England play South Africa in a Test match. And I told him beforehand the Lords Cricket ground would allow you to take a bottle of wine in if you wanted to drink it during the lunch interval. He, of course, brought a bottle of good Chilean wine and used the lunch interval to promote this wine to all the people sitting around us. He told President Bachelet this story when we met and she seemed somewhat bemused.

President Piñera was elected for a second term from 2018 to 2022. During this period like every other world leader had to deal with the COVID pandemic. And he probably showed more energy and imagination than almost anyone else in this respect. While others implemented lockdowns while waiting for something good to happen, Piñera quickly realised the key would be finding a vaccine. He and his health minister scoured the world for this. They found what they were looking for here in the UK. Chile became the first South American country to get quantities of the vaccine and no doubt saved many lives as a result.

 He was succeeded in office in 2022 by Gabriel Boric, a left-wing former student leader, who played a leading role in the demonstrations during Piñera's second term in office. Boric dropped out of university, has never had a proper job before becoming president, and was just 35 years old when he was elected. But to be fair to him President Boric paid a warm tribute to his predecessor on news of the death. “We are all Chile and we should dream it, draw it and build it together,” he said. “Sebastián Piñera said this when he assumed his second presidential term. On 11 March 2018. We send a big hug to his family and loved ones in these hard times.” The fact is that Piñera recognised that his successor did not only hold opposing political views, but that he was clearly out of his depth. In an entirely non-political way he offered mentoring to his successor who welcomed it, no doubt recognising that he needed advice from someone who had so much experience and knowledge. From where will he get it now?

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