Chile: In his first cabinet reshuffle since taking office in March, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera named environment minister Marcela Cubillos as his new education minister, replacing Gerardo Varela. A member of the conservative Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) – part of the ruling Chile Vamos coalition – Cubillos served as a national legislator from 2002-2010 and has sat on various congressional commissions, including on education. Varela was a controversial choice from the start – a former director of the free-market think-tank Fundación para el Progreso, his appointment raised questions over Piñera’s declared campaign pledge to provide free universal higher education. Cubillos has been replaced at the environment ministry by Carolina Schmidt, a former education minister (2013-2014) and women’s minister (2010-2013) in Piñera’s first term (2010-2014). The president also replaced culture minister Alejandra Pérez with historian and writer Mauricio Rojas.
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