Fénix Rojo

From the ash heap of history to another try;

The senator for the Atacama Region — whose father, former Socialist President Salvador Allende, took his own life after bombs fell and troops marched on La Moneda in the coup of Sept. 11, 1973 — will become the first female president of the upper house.

She will also be conferred the honor of placing the presidential sash on Michelle Bachelet when the former president (2006-2010) and fellow member of the Socialist Party (PS) — a more moderate incarnation of that which swept President Allende into power in 1970 — is inaugurated for the second time in March. Bachelet is the only Chilean woman to ever serve as head of state.

[Isabel] Allende released a statement Thursday saying that she is “proud to fill the role” once occupied by her father (1966-1969) before he went on to become the first democratically-elected Marxist president in Latin America.

With a little over 1/3 of the vote. Which didn't stop him from acting like his hero Fidel Castro, leading to the Chilean lower house voting 81-47 to depose him in the summer of 1973. When he defied the popular will after that vote, the military acted. Eventually leading to the freest, most prosperous society in Latin America.

But that was yesterday.