Georgina del Carmen Weber Aliaga (21 February 1941 in

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

– August 8, 2007 in

Concón Concón is a Chilean city and commune in Valparaíso Province, Valparaíso Region. It is a major tourist center known for its beaches, ''balnearios'' (beachside resorts) and night life. Geography The commune of Concón spans an area of . It ...

) was the first wife of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an ex-

president 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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ricardo Lagos 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 mother of politician Ricardo Lagos Weber. Carmen Weber met and married Ricardo Lagos in 1961, with whom he had two children: Ricardo and Ximena. After Lagos obtained his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in the U.S., he

annulled Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almo ...

this marriage in 1969 (

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

was not legal in Chile until 2004.) He also obtained custody of his two children. The cause of the rupture was her severe

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

. She became famous during the run-up to the 1988 national plebiscite when she supported General

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

, and spoke negatively of her former husband during an interview that was aired on September 30 of that year. That interview was considered the single most damaging moment against the Pinochet option as Chileans perceived her as vindictive and bitter, and sympathy went to the husband rather than her. As a consequence of an accidental fire at her home on May 18, 2007, she suffered deep respiratory damage which eventually resulted in her serious injury. She died at her home in the city of

References

1941 births 2007 deaths Chilean people of German descent People from Valdivia People with bipolar disorder {{Chile-bio-stub