Joaquín Lavín

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Joaquín José Lavín Infante (b. Santiago, October 23, 1953) is a Chilean politician. He is a member of the Independent Democrat Union (UDI) party and former mayor of Santiago and Las Condes municipalities of capital Santiago. He was a presidential candidate in 1999 and 2005, but lost both times.

Lavín earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Chicago. He wrote a book, Una revolución silenciosa (A Quiet Revolution), in support of Pinochet's economic policies. He was also political editor of El Mercurio. Afterwards, in 1992, Lavín was elected mayor of Las Condes, a stronghold of the right, with 31% of the vote and reelected in 1997 with 78% of the vote.

Lavín was the presidential candidate for the UDI-RN coalition Alliance for Chile in the 1999 election. He eventually lost to PS/PPD candidate Ricardo Lagos in a runoff by 200,000 votes. Lavín again represented UDI in the 2005 presidential election, but ended in third place with 23.23% of the vote, due the presence of another right-wing candidate in the race, Sebastián Piñera, who made it to the runoff election with 25.41% of the vote.

Lavín is also a supernumerary member of the conservative Opus Dei religious organization.