UN GATE / SDNY, Sept 20 -- Michelle Bachelet has withdrawn from the race to become the tenth UN Secretary-General. Below, in chronological order, is some of what still-banned Inner City Press has reported about her, from her years as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights including selling out the Uighurs (and now silent like Guterres on spying and surveillance for Iran by Huawei) through her brief candidacy — a record marked, throughout, by the same silences.
On Yemen UN Bachelet Concerned at Saudi Impunity But Silent on Guterres Favors and Censorship — Bachelet voiced concern about Saudi "impunity" in Yemen's Hodeidah offensive, while saying nothing about the UN's own impunity, or about Guterres's censorship of independent press covering it. (Note: exact date uncertain from the URL's numbering; placed here as the earliest in this set.)
While Barring Press From UN OHCHR Event Bachelet Rarely Seen In Geneva Office Guterres Scam (December 9, 2018) — Press barred from an OHCHR event under Bachelet's office, which Inner City Press noted was itself rarely staffed by Bachelet in person, amid what it called a broader Guterres "scam."
UN Human Rights Deputy Kate Gilmore Said To Leave in January While Bachelet Silent on Guterres Censorship (December 14, 2018) — Bachelet's own deputy's departure reported amid continued silence from her office on Guterres's censorship of the press.
On DR Congo UN Bachelet Silent Like Guterres on Disenfranchisement of Yumbi Just Counts Bodies (January 16, 2019) — Bachelet's office criticized for silence on the disenfranchisement of voters in Yumbi, DR Congo, limiting its public role to counting casualties rather than addressing the underlying democratic failure.
In Honduras Guards Let In Magdeleno Killers Some Claim UN Bachelet Spoke But No Answer (October 28, 2019) — Claims that Bachelet had spoken out on a Honduran human rights case went unconfirmed; her office did not respond to Inner City Press's inquiry.
Genocide Games Put UN Guterres' and Bachelet's Lies on the Podium But Enes Freedom's Ad Off-Air on NBC (February 7, 2022) — Bachelet grouped with Guterres in a piece examining UN statements around the Beijing Winter Olympics, published while human rights advocate Enes Kanter Freedom's ad on China was reportedly kept off NBC's broadcast.
As UN Bachelet Whitewashes the Uighurs China Purchase of SG Guterres Pays off in Lisbon Link (May 28, 2022) — Ahead of her China visit, Inner City Press connected Bachelet's approach to Beijing with its own reporting on Guterres's undisclosed Gulbenkian Foundation financial ties and their Lisbon-China connections.
UN Bachelet Quits After Whitewashes Uighurs As China Purchase of SG Guterres Pays Off (June 13, 2022) — The defining moment of her OHCHR tenure: a stage-managed China visit ending in a press conference dominated by scripted questions from Chinese state media, at which Bachelet said she could not access what was happening in Xinjiang. She announced her departure the same day. Guterres praised her: "She has moved the needle in an extremely challenging political context." Inner City Press's assessment: she had moved the UN's needle further toward Beijing, and said nothing about Guterres's own ban on this outlet's press access, then already four years old.
UNSG
Candidates Are Asked of UN Accountability, Waste,
Independence and UN Free Press (March 17,
2026) — Bachelet, by then a declared or nominated SG
candidate, was sent a detailed questionnaire by Inner City
Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, including a
direct yes-or-no question: "Will you immediately restore
Inner City Press to resident correspondent status at UN
Headquarters?" She and her sponsors never answered before
her withdrawal.
She never did anything about Guterres'
censorship and ban of Press, nor inaction on this July 25,
2026 application to re-enter, here
Bachelet's exit from the race closes the chapter without resolving it. The same questions that went unanswered across her years at OHCHR — about silence, about access, about accountability to the press she oversaw scrutiny of everyone else's human rights record while declining to address her own institution's — went unanswered, as far as this record shows, right up to the end of her candidacy too. Watch this site.