CHILE: ​New cabinet, old problem

CHILE - In Brief 29 Oct 2019 by Robert Funk

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Sebastián Piñera continued with his efforts to address the ten-day old protest movement by announcing a major cabinet shuffle. This was not unexpected. The ouster of Interior Minister (and presidential cousin) Andres Chadwick was one of the principal demands of last Friday’s million-person march. Still, until midday on Monday it was unclear how deep the president would cut. In the end, it was a major surgery which is unlikely to heal the underlying disease. Piñera did indeed get rid of Chadwick, as well as the government spokesperson Cecilia Perez (downgraded to the Ministry of Sport), Finance Minister Felipe Larraín (replaced by Ignacio Briones), Minister of the Economy Juan Andres Fontaine (replaced by Lucas Palacios) and Labor Minster Monckeberg (replaced by María José Zaldívar). In National Goods, Ward was replaced by a controversial former student leader, Julio Isamit, and to keep Piñera loyalist Perez in cabinet, Sports Minister Kantor was removed. Karla Rubilar, who as Intendant of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago has been one of the few political figures to emerge strengthened from the irruption of civil unrest, replaces Perez as government spokesperson (the official title is Secretary General of the Government). Although early on, and especially after the violent police and military response to the protests during their first few days, people began calling for Chadwick’s resignation, the escalation over the last ten days made it clear that no cabinet shuffle would have satisfied the street. The problem, it seems, is that the variety of different demands, including some for change that can only be possible in the long term (a new constitution), and others wh...