24 Facts About Ricardo Lagos

Ricardo Froilan Lagos Escobar is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006.

Ricardo Lagos was succeeded on 11 March 2006 by Socialist Michelle Bachelet, from the same coalition.

Ricardo Lagos made an unsuccessful bid to run for president in the 2017 Chilean general election.

Ricardo Lagos was the only child of Froilan Lagos Sepulveda and Emma Escobar Morales.

Ricardo Lagos attended primary school at Liceo Experimental Manuel de Salas and high school at the prestigious Instituto Nacional.

Ricardo Lagos subsequently began work as a professor of economics in the School of Law at the University of Chile, and between 1971 and 1972 he was Director of the Institute of Economy.

Ricardo Lagos was later named Director of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

Ricardo Lagos moved for a year to the United States, where he became visiting professor of the William R Kenan chair for Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ricardo Lagos returned to Chile in 1978, and worked for the Regional Program of Employment of the United Nations, PREALC.

Ricardo Lagos became the undisputed leader of Pinochet's opponents after appearing in Canal 13's first political debate show since the 1973 coup d'etat, De cara al pais, where he stated; "With the triumph of "No", the country will prevent General Pinochet from being 25 years in power, it will mark the start of the end of the dictatorship".

Ricardo Lagos then looked directly into the camera and accusingly raised his index finger to say directly to all viewers:.

In 1990, Ricardo Lagos was named Minister of Education by President Patricio Aylwin.

Ricardo Lagos lost this primary to Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who went on to become President of Chile.

Ricardo Lagos's status was later ratified by his appointment as one of the members of the Committee of Twelve Distinguished Members of the Socialist International, which he shared with such personalities as Felipe Gonzalez and Gro Harlem Brundtland.

In 1999, Ricardo Lagos resigned as minister in order to begin his presidential campaign.

Ricardo Lagos promised to keep the budget deficit in check and interest rates and inflation low.

The law was set to go into effect as soon as then-President Ricardo Lagos signed it, which he did weeks later.

Justice Minister Jose Antonio Gomez Urrutia praised both the Chamber of Deputies and Ricardo Lagos for supporting the measure.

On 24 March 2006 Ricardo Lagos inaugurated his own foundation called Democracia y Desarrollo in Santiago.

Ricardo Lagos assumed co-chairmanship of the Inter-American Dialogue's Board of Directors.

On 14 January 2017, Ricardo Lagos accepted the Party for Democracy's nomination to run for president in 2017.

In early 2007, Ricardo Lagos became a member of the editorial board of Americas Quarterly, a policy publication focused on relations and development in the Western Hemisphere.

In May 2007, Brown University announced that Ricardo Lagos would take a teaching position at the Watson Institute for International Studies for a period of five years, starting on 1 July 2007.

In 2013, Ricardo Lagos was a visiting professor at the University of Sao Paulo assuming the "Jose Bonifacio Catedra".