His gesture of pointing to Pinochet with his finger became an icon of the 80's for Chileans.
A respected man and politician, with a towering reputation, he seemed to come out of retirement, at 79, when he decided in September 2016 to run for president again in the void left by young like-minded politicians tainted in scandals surrounding how they financed their political campaigns.
But his campaign never really took off. The latest poll showed him struggling at the bottom, beaten even by a relatively unknown candidate who entered the race just a few weeks ago.
The final blow to his campaign came yesterday. The leadership of the Socialist Party, a party with which Mr. Lagos was closely associated, in a secret balloting, chose instead Mr. Alejandro Guillier, a well known journalist, to be the Socialist Party's presidential candidate.
For that reason, many had anticipated that Mr. Lagos would step down today, and he did, in particular in light of Mr. Guillier's landslide victory: 67 votes vs. 36 for Mr. Lagos.
All six major Chilean TV networks broadcast live Mr Lagos' speech today at around 10:30 am local time. At the end, he turned around and took no questions.
Before announcing that he would no longer be a candidate, he said that during his trips around Chile he felt the people's affection, but that he was aware that such affection did not translate into political support.
Mr. Lagos' exit seems to strengthen Mr. Alejandro Guillier's chances of becoming the candidate of the governing coalition, known as New Majority. However, many feel that the New Majority will break up in the coming months and that its members will each choose their own presidential candidates, bypassing a primary election.
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