In response to the mass protests in Chile, with at least 20 people dead, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, under pressure, reshuffled his cabinet and dismissed several ministers. Piñera replaced on Monday a total of eight of the 24 ministers.
He dismissed, inter alia, the unpopular Minister of the Interior Andrés Chadwick and replaced him by Gonzalo Blumel. Piñera also appointed the liberal economist Ignacio Briones Finance Minister. The president had last called his entire cabinet to resign. In the past 15 months he had already reshaped twice.
Video on protests in Chile: Tens of thousands of people defy curfew
REUTERS
Piñera has been facing unprecedented social protests for days. The demonstrators are calling for his resignation and a fundamental change in the economic policies of the Chilean government, blaming them for the social misery of large sections of the population.
On Friday, there were mass protests in the capital Santiago de Chile and several other cities with more than one million participants. The demonstrations were among the largest in the country's history. They had been triggered by an increase in subway ticket prices.
During the political turmoil, at least 20 people were killed and nearly 600 others injured. There were more than 3000 arrests. A UN Special Mission should arrive in the country on Monday to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/B7F2F3HZ2JCUHDZJKAGKAXXPSU.jpg)