Gabriel Boric

February 11, 1986

Chilean former student leader who was elected President of Chile in 2021, the youngest in its history.

Biography

Gabriel Boric was born in Punta Arenas in 1986 into a family of Croatian and Catalan descent. He studied law at the University of Chile but did not complete his degree. He rose to national prominence during the student protests of 2011-2013 and was president of the University of Chile Student Federation in 2012.

Boric was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Magallanes as an independent in 2013 and re-elected in 2017 within the Broad Front coalition; in 2018 he co-founded the Social Convergence party. During the unrest of late 2019 he helped broker the November agreement that led to the 2020 referendum on a new constitution, a role that drew criticism from parts of the left.

In December 2021 he defeated José Antonio Kast in the presidential runoff with 55.9 per cent, and on taking office in March 2022 he became the youngest president in Chile's history, with the first female-majority cabinet in the Americas. The draft constitution his government backed was rejected by voters in September 2022. He served until March 2026, when Kast succeeded him.