Ricardo Lagos Weber
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Ricardo Andrés Lagos Weber (born February 21, 1962), son of former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, is a politician who served as the Ministry General Secretariat of Government of Chile in the administration of former President Michelle Bachelet after having worked for Bachelet's 2005-2006 campaign. He is trained in law and economics, and has served the majority of his government career in economic positions. He was also an organizer and the senior representative for Chile at the Annual Meeting of APEC held in Chile in 2004, in addition to being one of the architects of the free trade agreements that Chile signed with the United States ( United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement) and the European Union (
European Union Association Agreement A European Union Association Agreement or simply Association Agreement (AA) is a treaty between the European Union (EU), its Member States and a non-EU country that creates a framework for co-operation between them. Areas frequently covered by su ...
) as the head of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Trade Policy. He is a member of the Party for Democracy (PPD). Between March 2016 and March 2017 he was
President of the Senate of Chile The president of the Senate of Chile is the presiding officer of the Senate of Chile. The position comes after the Ministers of State in the line of succession of the President of Chile in case of temporary incapacitation or vacancy, according to ...
.


Early life

Lagos Weber was born in the United States, the son of then- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor and now former president
Ricardo Lagos Escobar Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military di ...
and ex-wife Carmen Weber Aliaga. Due to the constant traveling caused by the exile of his father during the
military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
of Augusto Pinochet, Lagos Weber was forced to complete his studies in eight different schools, finishing his secondary education at Colegio San Agustin. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad de Chile School of Law, receiving his Bachelor of Law and Social Sciences degree in 1985. He continued his education at the University of Sussex in England, where he obtained a Masters in Economic Development at the
Institute of Development Studies The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is a think tank affiliated with the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, and based on its campus in Falmer, East Sussex. It delivers research and teaching in the area of development studies, an ...
. His postgraduate thesis was about flexibility in the labor market. He began work on his doctorate in Economics at the University of Cambridge with a
President of the Republic Scholarship President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...
(''Beca Presidente de la República''), which he applied for in 1990, but he returned to Chile to work in the Chilean section of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and did not finish the doctorate program.


Political career

In 1995, he became the Chilean representative to the APEC forum, conducting trade negotiations on economic cooperation. That same year he was part of a diplomatic team negotiating a free trade agreement between Canada and Chile. Lagoes Weber continued to negotiate trade agreements over the next few years. Since the end of the 1990s, Lagos Weber served as the head of the department of Trade Policy of the World Trade Organization, under the Chilean Foreign Ministry's General Directorate of International Economic Relations (DIRECON). In October, 1999, Lagos Weber left his WTO job to serve a major role in the presidential campaign of his father Ricardo Lagos. In 2000, he traveled with President Lagos to Berlin to act as a panelist at the "Third Way" conference, speaking for Chile and his father's administration. He subsequently became Director of Multilateral Economic Affairs in 2002, heading the General Directorate of International Economic Relations. Lagos Weber served as Chilean high representative for APEC during the summits of 2003 and 2004, and was the "main organizer" of the conference when Chile hosted APEC. To this end, he was also a Senior Official for Chile, and the president of APEC's Senior Officials Meeting II prior to the conference. Lagos Weber was a candidate for the congressional elections in December 2005, but withdrew his candidacy in August based on polls that suggested that, even with a 45% showing, he would not secure a seat under Chile's electoral rules.


Ministership

Lagos Weber was a top campaign strategist in Michelle Bachelet's victorious 2005 presidential campaign. In January, before her own inauguration, President-elect Bachelet sent Lagos Weber as Chile's representative to the inauguration of Evo Morales in
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, signaling an intent to improve the two countries' strained relations. In late January, 2006, Lagos Weber was named Ministry General Secretariat of Government, essentially the presidential
spokesman A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...
, by President Michelle Bachelet, and he took office on March 11. In 2007, Bachelet announced that any cabinet members seeking to run in the upcoming elections would have to announce their resignation by January, 2008. With the popularity of the Bachelet administration at a low, and the Concertación's support suffering, Lagos Weber announced his resignation on December 6, 2007, to make his candidacy for the Senate of Chile for the district of the Valparaíso Region in the December 2008 election. Seen as a rising star, often aided by his recognizability as the former president's son and a visible spokesman to the current president, the upcoming election takes on increased importance as the Concertación faces the risk of losing its dominant role in the government. He was replaced by Francisco Vidal (also from the PPD), who had already served in that post for the administration of
Ricardo Lagos Escobar Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military di ...
.


Senate

Lagos Weber is a member of the Senate of Chile for district V Valparaíso Region. On 15 March 2016 he was elected
President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for e ...
, he succeeded
Patricio Walker Patricio in Spanish, or Patrício in Portuguese, is a male given name equivalent to Patrick (given name), Patrick in English. The Spanish name is pronounced with the stress on the same first i as Portuguese, but an accent is not needed because t ...
. On 21 March 2017 he was succeeded by
Andrés Zaldívar José Andrés Rafael Zaldívar Larraín, (born March 18, 1936) popularly known as ''El Chico Zaldívar'' ("Short Zaldívar"), is a prominent Chilean Christian Democrat politician. Andrés Zaldívar is of Basque descent. Early years Zaldívar wa ...
.


References


External links


Ministry General Secretariat of Government
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagos Weber, Ricardo 1962 births Living people Children of presidents of Chile Chilean Ministers Secretary General of Government Chilean agnostics Chilean people of German descent Chilean people of Spanish descent University of Chile alumni Alumni of the University of Sussex Candidates for President of Chile Members of the Senate of Chile Presidents of the Senate of Chile Party for Democracy (Chile) politicians Senators of the LV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Senators of the LVI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile