Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has reshuffled her cabinet
replacing the ministers of education, the interior and the economy,
government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber said on Friday.
Belisario Velasco will replace Andres Zaldivar Larrain as
interior minister, Yasna Provoste Campillay will take over the
education ministry from Martin Zilic, and Alejandro Ferreiro, head
of Chile's securities regulation under the country's last
government, will replace Ingrid Antonijevic as economy
minister.
The cabinet reshuffle comes six weeks after nationwide student
strikes and massive flooding and landslides this week that have
killed at least 15 people.
Velasco previously served as deputy interior minister under a
previous government from the same center-left Coalition for
Democracy as Bachelet. Immediately prior to his appointment,
Velasco was president of the National Television Council.
Provoste was planning minister in the government of Ricardo
Lagos, who ceded the presidency to Bachelet in March.
Prior to the reshuffle, the ministers of finance, housing and
health were also called in to see Bachelet, Chile's first woman
president. Those three ministers keep their posts.
The student protests in May and June had a strong effect on
Bachelet's approval ratings, which fell 10 points to 44 percent,
according to a poll published last week by researcher Adimark.
The reshuffle maintained the 50-50 male-female ratio she aimed
to have in her cabinet.
(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2006)
