Gabriel Boric
Gabriel Boric was president of Chile from 2022 to 2026, elected at thirty-five, the youngest in the country's history, the student leader of the marches of 2011 who had been in congress since 2014 for Magallanes, at the bottom of the continent. He beat the far-right Kast in the run-off of December 2021 by twelve points on the wave of the estallido, and then presided over the wave's ebb. The constitutional convention's draft, a text of three hundred and eighty-eight articles on plurinationality, nature's rights and gender parity that he campaigned for, was rejected by sixty-two per cent in September 2022. The second draft, written by a council that Kast's party controlled, was rejected by fifty-six per cent in December 2023, which left Pinochet's constitution standing. The government passed the forty-hour week, a royalty on copper and lithium, and a pension reform negotiated with the right in January 2025 that raised the employer contribution. It did not pass the tax reform. He was born in Punta Arenas in 1986 into a family of Croatian and Catalan descent, studied law at the University of Chile without taking the degree, led its student federation in 2012. He was elected to the chamber as an independent in 2013 and re-elected with the highest vote in the country in 2017. The Frente Amplio he founded was the party of the 2011 generation, and the estallido was its moment. He signed the agreement of 15 November 2019 that channelled it into the constitutional process, against his own allies' wishes. The presidency was also the crime wave and the migration through the northern desert that changed the country's mood, the fires of Valparaiso in February 2024 that killed a hundred and thirty-seven. There was a foreign policy that condemned Russia, Israel and Venezuela alike, which was unusual on the Latin American left. He could not stand again, and Kast won the run-off of December 2025 against his coalition's candidate. He handed over on 11 March 2026 at thirty-nine, with a long career ahead of him or behind him.
- Lived: 1986 CE – ?
- Nationality: Chilean
- Roles: president, politician
