Chile: Cabinet Shuffle

CHILE - In Brief 28 Jul 2020 by Robert Funk

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President Sebastián Piñera announced a major cabinet shuffle today, replacing six ministers, the most important of which was the Minister of the Interior. Gonzalo Blumel, who has been seen by the hard right as too soft on the protests and, more recently, as unable to push through the government’s political agenda (especially on pensions), was replaced with Victor Perez, a long standing, hardline UDI parliamentarian.Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera was replaced by another old timer, Andres Allamand, who represents Renovación Nacional (RN). Allamand has been in politics since the 80s, has been a deputy, a senator, and served as Defense Minister in Piñera’s first government. Most recently he’s been a strident critic of the government’s willingness to go ahead with the constitutional plebiscite.Defense also saw a change, with the moderate president of RN, Mario Desbordes, replacing Alberto Espina. Desbordes has been a vocal supporter of the constitutional process, which will put him at odds with many of his cabinet colleagues, especially Perez and Allamand.Other changes were made to the ministries of Social Development, the Secretary General of the Presidency (responsible for, among other things, the legislative agenda), and the Secretary General of Government (government spokesperson).The bottom line is that the cabinet shuffle does little to improve the way Piñera is able to deal with the three simultaneous crises facing the country (health, economic and political). Rather, it is aimed almost exclusively at resolving internal party differences, at fixing the cabinet rather than Covid. The incoming ministers represent a shift to the right and away from Piñera’s tendency to...