Born: 22 August 1926, Chile
Died: 2 July 2020
Country most active: Chile
Also known as: Ángela Margarita Jeria Gómez
Ángela Margarita Jeria Gómez was a Chilean archaeologist, the mother of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and the wife of the Chilean Air Force brigadier general Alberto Bachelet, who died after being tortured during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. She was also imprisoned by the DINA (Pinochet’s secret police), with her daughter Michelle, and transferred to Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Alamos, where she was tortured. After being freed and exiled from the country, Jeria lived in Australia, where she worked as an activist against Pinochet’s military dictatorship, traveling to Mexico, Cuba and the Soviet Union. She also stayed with her daughter Michelle, who was studying medicine at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. There, Jeria worked as an assistant at a center of prehistory and archaeology.
In 1977, Jeria went to Washington, D.C. to testify on human rights violations in Chile, after the murder of Orlando Letelier. In 1979, Jeria returned to Chile and started working for human rights organisations. She was detained several times for participating in demonstrations against the military regime.
In 2006, Michelle became the first woman to be elected president of Chile. Jeria served as an informal first lady during the first Bachelet government, accompanying her daughter to official functions. Her official role was “Director of the Sociocultural Area of the Presidency.” On 21 November 2007, Jeria was awarded the “Medal University Senate” for her work at the University of Chile. She also the “Monseñor Leonidas Proaño” award for contributing to the defense of human rights in the region.