The elected president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, appointed this Friday the former president of the Central Bank Mario Marcel as future Minister of Finance, and the former president of the Medical Association Izkia Siches in Interior, by presenting a cabinet made up mostly of women and of great political diversity.
(Read here: Gabriel Boric: the challenges of the young president of Chile)
Marcel, an independent linked to the Socialist Party, resigned on Thursday night as president of the Central Bank. Before, he held various positions in the center-left governments, between 1990 and 2008, and was preferred by the markets, who see in his appointment a gesture of moderation in the economic reforms that Boric seeks to implement.
Izkia Siches, future Minister of the Interior or Chief of Cabinet, the first woman in Chilean history to hold this position. Siches is 35 years old, she is a surgeon from the University of Chile and in 2017 she became the first woman to reach the presidency of the Medical College. He has had an active participation during the pandemic.
We have formed this work team with prepared people (…) with the ability to add views, different perspectives and new visions
The cabinet, of 24 ministers, 14 of them women, will include Antonia Urrejola, former president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), for the Foreign Ministry, while the spokesperson elected the communist deputy Camila Vallejo and in the General Secretariat of the Presidency, which is in charge of relations with Parliament, nominated his right-hand man, deputy Giorgio Jackson.
The last two are former student leaders and deputies who, together with Gabriel Boric, led the 2011 protests in search of “free, quality public education.”
(You may be interested: How does Chile get to elect the youngest president in its history?)
This is the first cabinet in Chilean history with more women than men, with an average age of 42 years, with the presence of independents and with the inclusion of other parties outside the Approve Dignity coalition with which Boric won the elections on 19 December, made up of the Broad Front and the Communist Party.
“We have formed this work team with prepared people, with knowledge and experience, committed to the change agenda that the country needs and with the ability to add views, different perspectives and new visions,” said Boric.
Several future ministers were absent from the act, due to being on vacation or affected by close cases of coronavirus.
Winks to the center left
At 36 years old, Boric will become the youngest president in the history of Chile on March 11 and the first to arrive at La Moneda (seat of government) who is not part of the traditional blocs that have led the country since the return. to democracy in 1990, the Concertación (centre left) and the Alianza (centre right).
With a view to having governability and unity in a highly fragmented Parliament without majorities, the future ruler included in his cabinet the parties of the former Concertación that did not support him in the first round, such as the Socialist Party (PS), the Party for Democracy (PPD), the Liberal Party and the Radical Party (PR).
This is the case of Maya Fernández, granddaughter of the ousted Salvador Allende and future Minister of National Defense; the socialist senator Carlos Montes (Housing and Urbanism); from the “pepedé” Jeanette del Rosario Vega (Social Development and Family); the liberal Juan Carlos García (Public Works); and the radical Marcela Hernando (Mining).
Although they have no affiliation and are independent, the appointments of Marcel and Urrejola are also interpreted as a nod to the former Concertación, since they are close to socialism.
“Today a new chapter begins to be written in our democratic history. We are not starting from scratch, we know that there is a history that elevates and inspires us,” said the former student leader.
Communists in the Chilean political committee
Among the milestones of the new cabinet, the majority of women and the presence of eight independents and three communists stand out, a party that for the first time with Vallejo will be in the so-called Political Committee, the hard core of the Government.
In the portfolio of Economy, Development and Tourism will be Nicolás Grau, from Boric’s Social Convergence (CS) party, while Labor and Social Welfare will be held by the communist Jeannette Jara and Justice and Human Rights, Marcela Ríos, also from CS.
The independent surgeon María Begoña Yarza, former director of the Exequiel González Cortés Hospital, will assume Health at a time when the omicron variant is triggering infections in Chile.
The rest of the ministerial payroll is made up of Marco Antonio Ávila (Education), Esteban Valenzuela (Agriculture), Antonia Cósmica (Women and Gender Equity) and Juan Carlos Muñoz (Transportation and Telecommunications). Javiera Toro (National Assets), Claudio Huepe (Energy), Maisa Rojas (Environment), Alexandra Benado (Sport), Julieta Brodsky (Cultures, Arts and Heritage) and Flavio Andrés (Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation) will also be present.
AFP and EFE
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