By Senabri Silverstre
SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.
The daughter of former Chilean President Salvador Allende said Saturday that she is ready to run for president.
"I am setting to be the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS) primaries if so is estimated and is a collective decision,” Isabel Allende said in an interview with El Mercurio newspaper.
She said if the PS asked her to run she would do it.
Allende, who currently serves as a senator and president of the PS, said she likes the idea that the option for a presidential candidate could be resolved democratically in a primary, in which the one who has better ideas for the country could be elected.
Her announcement came one day after former President Ricardo Lagos indicated he is willing to run in the next presidential elections expected to he held in 2017.
Lagos, who led the country between 2000-2006, admitted that there are a number of drawbacks to his candidacy in the current climate of distrust of Chileans for corruption scandals that involved businessmen and politicians.
Allende has broad support in Chile but would face a test from Lagos in the fight to replace current President Michelle Bachelet.
Salvador Allende became the first Marxist president in Latin America in 1970 but was overthrown by the U.S-backed Alberto Pinochet on Sept. 11, 1973.
The president killed himself later that day while his daughter fled to Mexico where she remained in exile for 16 years before returning to Chile.
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