The sense of duty

The departure of a friend and a loved one always shakes us and leaves emptiness, sadness and memories, just as it unequivocally invites us to go through the moments lived to evoke them and, why not, fix them in our memory as if they were They will deal with perennial teachings. The last few days have been hard when we learned of the tragic departure of Sebastián Piñera Echenique. A friend like few others, a born leader, a rigorous and assertive president, a lover of life, a loving father and husband, a crony grandfather and a tireless entrepreneur.

I had the honor of sharing many moments with Sebastián alongside his wife, Cecilia, with whom he formed a beautiful marriage of more than 50 years, and with his daughter Magdalena, who was both company and student of his inexhaustible innovations. I also saw it in his relationship with his daughter Cecilia where the humor and rigor of the conversation were phenomenal and although I did not share it with them I was able to appreciate the admiration and pride that he professed for his sons Sebastián and Cristóbal, whom he saw as natural heirs of his business initiatives. He highlighted this first facet because it is very difficult to be a good leader without being a good person and a good family member, and Sebastián was above all a being who combined his demand, perfectionism and competitiveness with the masterful way of teaching by example and with his own demand with himself. That way of combining bonhomie with a strict figure made him special.

I had the immense pleasure of sharing with him as president and understanding his dimension of fighting for success throughout his life, because in everything he set his mind to he reached the top of the mountain. As an economist, he was a PHD from Harvard University, becoming a professor and researcher at ECLAC at an early age, a path he left to be the master of his own business destiny and become one of the richest men in Latin America with his own hands and talent. In these facets he always opposed the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and was an independent voice from the private sector that added energy and arguments for the victory of the No against the continuity of the cruel dictatorship that hit his homeland. In that role of debater and preacher he joined forces with all those who longed for democracy, even if they thought differently, and he was victorious.

Later, and thanks to friends like Andrés Allamand, Piñera was attacked by the bug of politics, which to tell the truth was already incubated in his soul. This is how that torrential oratorical and argumentative capacity came out that led him to the Senate and twice occupy the Presidency of his country, becoming one of the best public managers the continent has ever known, given his love for evidence and impact measurements. .

But there is something paradoxical in his feat and it is the way in which he overcame the greatest adversities that any president of Chile has experienced since the return to democracy. In his first government, he managed the reconstruction of Chile after one of the most devastating earthquakes in national history and led the rescue of the 33 miners trapped underground, which for many was a lost cause, while in his second government he faced a prefabricated social outbreak. maintaining democratic stability and institutional solidity in the face of unprecedented phenomena of irrational violence fueled by dark international interests, just as it masterfully managed the covid-19 crisis, positioning Chile as an example in the management of the pandemic.

Added to these qualities of navigating thick storms is the greatness to energize infrastructure, promote social programs, assume the environmental vanguard, and lead from the energy transition to 21st century technologies and their massification.

There were many moments that we shared as presidents, many conversations and many coordinated actions. I enjoyed that idea of ​​being friends and competing healthily in our politics because that's how we move forward. Every time I was with him I learned something and I can say that he was in love with Colombia and its strategic relationship with Chile.

Since we left the presidency we have entered a new stage of friendship. We worked with Mauricio Macri and Tuto Quiroga to give life to the Freedom and Democracy Group, of which Sebastián was the heart and soul. I had their support in the Concordia por la Amazonia initiative and we were able to share as many climate action projects as life allowed.

Recently he and Cecilia invited me to stay at their house during a brief trip to Chile to give a conference. The two splendid hosts made my life happy and I got to know the side of Sebastián the helicopter pilot. Rigorous, professional and meticulous like him in all his tasks, he invited me to fly and see how from the fragility of the air he showed me his country with the passion that a father describes to his children.

Out of my curiosity and perhaps because of the fear that helicopters produce in me, I asked him many hypothetical questions about possible emergencies and for all the scenarios I had an answer on what to do and how to act. Therefore, upon knowing the details of his heroic maneuver when facing an emergency in Lake Ranco, with which he saved the lives of his sister and two crew members facing an imminent risk, it is clear that until his last breath he was conscious of sacrificing his life. be necessary for others.

We have lost a great person from the earthly world, a being who left his mark and who was always full of projects. We have been fortunate who had the opportunity to share with him. Now a new dimension begins in history that will be just as great.

Destiny was always clear to me, as he told me in his last message for my birthday and that is another great lesson: “Iván: Very, very Happy Birthday. And remember that the years we turn no longer belong to us. They are already part of the past that is gone. We only have the future and, as the Bible says, no one knows the day or hour when we will be called. That is why you have to walk “light with your baggage” through this earthly life and prepared for the other life that is eternal. A loving hug, Cecilia and Sebastián.”

Rest in peace, dear friend; We will always defend your legacy, guided by a sense of duty.

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