Before the arrival of March, the month in which the academic year formally begins in Chile and when social protests are expected to revive, the lawyer of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party Marcela Cubillos has resigned from her position as Minister of Education by Sebastián Piñera. Rejected by teachers and student organizations, Cubillos was the minister of the doctrinal right with greater visibility than the president kept in his cabinet, after the profound change of equipment he had to make a few days after the outbreak of October 18. He will be replaced by Raúl Figueroa, also a lawyer, who until Friday served as his second in the Ministry.
As confirmed by the president of the UDI, Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe, Cubillos will assume an important role in the campaign for the rejection of a new Constitution, with a view to the plebiscite of April 26 that will be held in Chile. "It will be a great contribution to convince Chileans that the way to improve the country is not a new Constitution or a blank sheet," wrote the senator and leader of the right-wing party.
MORE INFORMATION
Chile launches the race for the constitutional referendum- The Chilean social explosion: a coup de grace for hundreds of SMEs
Despite the intention of President Piñera to ensure the Government's presidency in the process of constitutional change - which will define whether the Pinochet Constitution of 1980 and the mechanism for drafting it is replaced -, at the beginning of the month Cubillos herself had publicly transparentized his position , moving away from the official instruction: "I am not neutral in the face of the challenges that are coming," he told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera .
The Education portfolio has historically been conflictive since the return to democracy in 1990, so the level of rotation of its ministers is higher than that of the rest of the cabinet. There have been student explosions in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2018 in demand for quality public education, but although various reforms have been made, state investment in the area remains the smallest of OECD countries.
Cubillos - considered a policy of strong right-wing convictions - had a complex management: he carried out the controversial Safe Classroom law, which allows students to be expelled to carry some type of weapon, commit some type of aggression or cause “infrastructure damage” . In 2019, he faced accusations in Parliament seeking his resignation. It was the symbol of the doctrinal right in the Government and continued to be - still with greater force - since the October rebellion. With his unexpected departure, it is not clear if President Piñera will decide to make a new cabinet change to face the second half of his Administration (2018-2022), whose anniversary is March 11.
According to the latest Cadem survey - a Chilean public opinion platform -, Cubillos was the penultimate worst assessed minister in the current cabinet, second only to Health Minister Jaime Mañalich. While he remained in office, which he assumed in August 2018, his figure was subject to strong resistance. Upon knowing his departure today, the president of the College of Teachers, Mario Aguilar, said: "During all this time it was more an obstacle than a contribution to advance in educational matters."
#cubillos resigns, expected when all education actors demanded their departure months ago! But do you know who the new minister is? “Lawyer of the univ. Catholic and master in business law from univ. The Andes.
Judge you, we continue preparing March✊🏻🔥
The Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students of Chile (ACES), who starred in sabotage of the university selectivity exams in the early days of 2020, also celebrated his resignation: "Expected when all the education actors demanded their departure months ago," they said. in a message on his Twitter account, in which they took the opportunity to reiterate their protest calls for the coming weeks. “ We continue preparing March,” wrote ACES.
The road to a new Constitution
As a way of institutionally leading citizen discontent, last November almost all political forces agreed with the Piñera Government to open the constitutional debate after 40 years. Eight weeks after the referendum, however, it is not clear to anyone what will happen in March, when the year formally begins in Chile, after the summer months of January and February.
There is practically no day next month in which there are no calls and protests for various reasons: from marches through the environment to mobilizations by the Mapuche people. But, although the massiveness and success of the appeals is a mystery, it seems highly likely that on Sunday, March 8, when International Women's Day is commemorated, it will be the first major concentration of 2020. For day 9, meanwhile, women's movements have folded to the global calls for the feminist general strike.
According to official figures, since October there have been 2,781 serious public disorder events and 24,343 people have been arrested, with 1,615 preventive prisons. Various international organizations, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), have denounced the human rights violations that have occurred by police and military forces in the context of the protests. March will be a litmus test for the Executive a few weeks after a plebiscite with uncertain participation.