Isabel Allende (politician)

{{About|the Chilean politician|the Chilean author|Isabel Allende}}

{{Infobox Politician

| honorific-prefix =

| name = María Isabel Allende

| honorific-suffix =

| image = María Isabel Allende Bussi.jpg

| caption = Isabel Allende in August 2011

| office3 = Leader of the Socialist Party of Chile

| term_start3 = {{start date|2015|5|17|df=y}}

| term_end3 = {{end date|2017|4|9|df=y}}

| predecessor3 = Osvaldo Andrade

| successor3 = Álvaro Elizalde

| office2 = Senator for Atacama

| term_start2 = {{start date|2010|3|11|df=y}}

| term_end2 = {{end date|2018|3|11|df=y}}

| successor2 = Yasna Provoste

| predecessor2 = Ricardo Núñez Muñoz

| office1 = Senator for Valparaíso

| term_start1 = {{start date|2018|3|11|df=y}}

| term_end1 =

| predecessor1 = Ignacio Walker

| office = President of the Chilean Senate

| term_start = {{start date|2014|3|11|df=y}}

| term_end = {{end date|2015|3|11|df=y}}

| predecessor = Jorge Pizarro

| successor = Patricio Walker

| majority =

| office4 = President of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies

| term_start4 = {{start date|2003|3|18|df=y}}

| term_end4 = {{end date|2004|3|16|df=y}}

| predecessor4 = Adriana Muñoz

| successor4 = Pablo Lorenzini

| office5 = Member of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies

| term_start5 = {{start date|1998|3|11|df=y}}

| term_end5 = {{end date|2010|3|11|df=y}}

| constituency5 = 29th District

| predecessor5 = Jaime Estévez

| successor5 = Osvaldo Andrade

| term_start6 = 11 March 1994

| term_end6 = 11 March 1998

| constituency6 = 9th District

| predecessor6 = Víctor Manuel Rebolledo

| successor6 = Adriana Muñoz

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1945|01|18|df=y}}

| birth_place = Santiago, Chile

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party = Socialist Party of Chile

| spouse =

| children = 2

| parents = {{ubl|Salvador Allende|Hortensia Bussi}}

| relatives = Allende family

| residence =

| alma_mater = University of Chile

| occupation =

| profession = Sociologist

| signature =

| website = [http://www.isabelallendebussi.cl/ Official website]

| footnotes =

}}

María Isabel Allende Bussi ({{IPAc-en|US|ɑː|ˈ|j|ɛ|n|d|eɪ|,_|-|d|i}},{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/allende|title=Allende|work=Collins English Dictionary|publisher=HarperCollins|access-date=27 July 2019}}{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Allende Gossens|access-date=27 July 2019}} {{IPAc-en|UK|æ|ˈ|-|,_|aɪ|ˈ|ɛ|n|-}},{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Allende,+Salvador |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807072602/https://www.lexico.com/definition/allende,_salvador |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-08-07 |title=Allende, Salvador |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/isabel-allende|title=Allende, Isabel|work=Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English|publisher=Longman|access-date=20 August 2019}} {{IPA|es|isaˈβel aˈʝende|lang|Isabel Allende.ogg}}; born 18 January 1945) is a Chilean politician.

A member of the Socialist Party and the youngest daughter of former president of Chile Salvador Allende and Hortensia Bussi, Allende served as a deputy from 1994 to 2010 and in March 2010 she became a Senator for the Atacama Region. On 28 February 2014, she was selected as president of the Senate, a position previously held by her father in the 1960s,[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/28/isabel-allende-first-woman-chile-senate-leader Isabel Allende chosen as first woman to lead Chile's senate], Associated Press, The Guardian, 28 February 2014 making her the first female president of the Senate in Chilean history.

Biography

Allende attended the Maisonette College, and unlike her sisters, was initially attracted to the Catholic Church and received her first communion. In 1962, at the age of 17, she began studying sociology, and joined the university's socialist brigade. Five years later she accompanied her father to the congress of the Socialist Party in Chile.

On 11 September 1973, the day of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, Allende was the last person to enter the presidential palace. After the military began to bomb the presidential palace, and the outcome was already clear, her father Salvador Allende ordered the women to leave.

Salvador Allende, the first Marxist president elected in the Americas, and sitting president at the time of the coup, killed himself rather than surrender to coup plotters led by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. The military coup launched a 17-year dictatorship.{{Cite web|last=Santiago|first=Associated Press in|date=28 February 2014|title=Isabel Allende chosen as first woman to lead Chile's senate|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/28/isabel-allende-first-woman-chile-senate-leader|access-date=11 March 2021 |website=TheGuardian.com |language=en-GB}} Isabel obtained political asylum in Mexico, with her mother and her sister Beatriz, where she spent sixteen years in exile, before returning to Chile in 1989, in the final stretch of the military regime.

Her first marriage, with Sergio Meza, did not last for long, but they had a son, Gonzalo.{{Cite web|url=http://www.caras.cl/politica/isabel-allende-bussi-su-historia-secreta/|title = Cotilleos de todo tipo, famosas que se han vuelto actrices porno y Mucho Más! |website=caras.cl |access-date=11 September 2023}} Gonzalo (1965-2010) was an activist in the "No" movement leading up to the 1988 plebiscite and a founder of the Party for Democracy. With her second husband, Romilio Tambutti, she has a daughter named Marcia (b. 1971).{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/chiles-salvador-allende-the-man-behind-the-legend/3NEPJNC5NSJZAALYDLPECXGTXY/ |title=Chile's Salvador Allende - the man behind the legendh |language=en-NZ |work=Whanganui Chronicle |date=20 October 2018 |publisher=nzherald.co.nz |quote=Director Marcia Tambutti Allende, granddaughter of murdered Chilean president Salvador Allende tells his inside story in Beyond My Grandfather. ... His violent removal from power by Augusto Pinochet in a coup d'état on September 11, 1973, turned Allende into an international symbol of democracy and human rights. ... Tambutti, born two years before the coup |access-date=11 September 2023}}

Other members of the Allende family have played important roles in Chilean politics. Her niece Maya Fernández, also a member of the Socialist Party, is Minister of Defense under President Gabriel Boric, since March 2022. Gay rights activist Alejandro Fernández Allende is her nephew.{{Cite web|last=Modarelli|first=Alejandro|date=12 July 2018 |title=Las caras de La Moneda|url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/129223-las-caras-de-la-moneda|url-status=live|access-date=18 October 2021|website=Página 12|language=es|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720072637/https://www.pagina12.com.ar/129223-las-caras-de-la-moneda |archive-date=20 July 2018}}

Political career

On returning to her homeland, Allende began a successful political career as a member of the Socialist Party of Chile. After Chile's return to democracy in 1990, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, serving as its President between 2003 and 2004, becoming the second woman to do so after Adriana Muñoz.

Allende, along with Soledad Alvear and several other Senators, sponsored a bill to extend voting rights to Chileans living abroad.{{cite web |url=http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1061853 |title=LEY 20748 REGULA EL EJERCICIO DEL SUFRAGIO DE LOS CIUDADANOS QUE SE ENCUENTRAN FUERA DEL PAÍS |author =Ministerio Secretaría General de la Presidencia |date = 2015-05-03 | access-date = 2022-04-01| website = LeyChile }} The right to vote from overseas was codified by Law No. 20.748, which allowed thousands of Chileans to vote in the 2020 national plebiscite and in presidential elections.

Among her principal successes, Allende has worked to reform Chile's divorce law; a law that allows disabled individuals to be judges and notaries; and a law permitting abortion on three grounds.{{cite web|url=http://www.isabelallendebussi.cl/seccion/2/mi-historia.html|title=Mi Historia - Isabel Allende Bussi {{!}} Senadora Región de Valparaíso|access-date=2017-10-27|last=tayco.cl|website=Isabel Allende Bussi {{!}} Senadora Región de Valparaíso|archive-date=2017-10-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028043508/http://www.isabelallendebussi.cl/seccion/2/mi-historia.html|url-status=dead}} She has also worked for the passage of bills on gender identity, the water code, and creation of a government service for biodiversity and environmental protection. She supports adhering to the Trans-Pacific partnership.{{Cite web|date=2019-05-19|title=Quórum de aprobación del TPP-11 continúa generando debate: senadores de oposición recurrirán al TC para zanjar este punto|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2019/05/23/quorum-de-aprobacion-del-tpp-11-continua-generando-debate-senadores-de-oposicion-recurriran-al-tc-para-zanjar-este-punto/|access-date=2021-01-11|website=El Mostrador|language=es}}

References

External links

{{official website|http://www.isabelallendebussi.cl/}} (Spanish)

[http://www.bcn.cl/quienes_somos/dis_camara/rese_allende Biography] from the Chilean National Congress
[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/world/americas/24chile.html] New York Times on exhumation of Salvador Allende

Category:1945 births

Category:Living people

Category:Politicians from Santiago, Chile

Isabel

Category:Chilean people of Basque descent

Category:Chilean people of Italian descent

Category:Socialist Party of Chile politicians

Category:Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile

Category:Deputies of the XLIX Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile

Category:Deputies of the L Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile

Category:Deputies of the LI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile

Category:Deputies of the LII Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile