Who is Gabriel Boric, the youngest elected President of Chile

Gabriel Boric is a left-leaning former student leader who says he is determined to improve the lives of all Chileans and attack deep that inequality that has sparked massive protests.

(Photo credit: IANS)

New Delhi: Gabriel Boric Font, who was sworn in as the new President of Chile on Friday, has become the youngest president of Chile so far.

Boric is a left-leaning former student leader who says that he is determined to improve the lives of all Chileans and attack deep that inequality that has sparked massive protests.

Boric came to prominence when he as a law student became the president of the University of Chile Student Federation from 2011 to 2012.

As a student representative, Boric became one of the leading figures of the 2011–2013 Chilean student protests. Boric was twice elected to the Chamber of Deputies representing the Magallanes and Antarctic district, first as an independent candidate in 2013 and then in 2017 as part of the Broad Front, a left-wing coalition he created with several other parties.

Though Gabriel Boric never graduated from law school, he is the founding member of Social Convergence, which was formed in 2018 and is one of the constituent parties of Broad Front.

New President Boric was also one of the key politicians to negotiate the agreement that paved the way for a referendum to change the Constitution.

The 31-year-old Chilean President was just four when the democracy seeped into his country and has been a staunch supporter of the idea ever since.

Gabriel Boric, who won 56% of the vote in a December runoff against conservative José Antonio Kast, has taken over the office of president on Friday, at a time when large-scale immigration from Venezuela and other countries has caused unrest in northern Chile.