Lagos (Escobar), Ricardo (1938– )

Chilean economist and politician, president 2000–06. Widely regarded as a moderate leftist, Lagos was Chile's first socialist president since Allende was overthrown in 1973. Lagos, who won in the January 1999 election, succeeded Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei and was the third democratically-elected president since General Pinochet stepped down in 1990. He promised to put a greater emphasis on tackling social problems, on reducing crime and unemployment, and on improving health and education. Lagos was a leading opposition figure during Pinochet's military government. He served in the government of Salvador Allende, and was a long-time dissident of the military regime.

Lagos became well known in the late 1980s, after he gave a bold televised criticism of General Pinochet while the military dictator was still in power. He was particularly notable in 1988, when he worked to defeat a referendum that would have extended Pinochet's power until the turn of the century. In 1987, Lagos formed the Party for Democracy (PPD) which by 2000 was the second largest party in Chile's ruling Concertación coalition of democratic parties. Following the return of democracy to Chile in 1990, Lagos served first as education minister under President Aylwin's administration 1990–92, and then as public works minister in the government of outgoing President Frei 1994–1996. Lagos's inauguration came a little more than a week after Pinochet returned to Chile following more than 16 months under arrest in the UK. He said that the country's courts would decide whether to prosecute General Pinochet.

Lagos attended the University of Chile where he received a law degree in 1960, and then went to the USA where he received a doctorate in economics from Duke University in North Carolina in 1966. After pursuing a career in academia, he worked as a senior economist at the United Nations (UN) 1978–84. He returned to Chile and headed a coalition of all parties opposed to the Pinochet regime (Alianza Democrática), and in 1986 was arrested and detained without charges for three weeks following an assassination attempt on Pinochet in which five of the general's bodyguards were killed.