Who is who? The profiles of Boric's new ministers

The new Chilean Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, arrives at the presidential cabinet change ceremony today at La Moneda Palace in Santiago (Chile). Alberto Valdes (EFE)

President Gabriel Boric recognized this Tuesday when announcing his first and profound change of Cabinet that it is one of "the most difficult political decisions" he has made.

"It had to hurt, and it hurts, but it is necessary," he added after removing two highly trusted figures from his political committee: the former Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches;

and Giorgio Jackson, Secretary of the Presidency.

The movement, which comes after the resounding rejection of the constitutional proposal at the polls, is an obvious change in the political committee, the iron circle.

The experience and a past linked to the governments of the center-left Concertación that governed Chile between 1990 and 2010 are the main hallmarks of the new members.

After announcing the new appointments, the Chilean president has assured that he has had differences with some of them in the past.

"However, the good of Chile requires us to overcome these differences, meet, and I have no doubt that, due to the commitment we have discussed, we are going to achieve it."

Ministry of the Interior and Defense: Carolina Tohá

Carolina Tohá (Santiago, 57 years old) is the daughter of José Toha, who was also Minister of the Interior during the presidency of Salvador Allende, and who was assassinated in 1974 after the Pinochet coup.

The political scientist and academic, she lived part of her childhood in exile in Mexico and studied her career in Milan.

She is a member of the Party for Democracy (PPD), a group of which she was its first female president, between August 2010 and June 2012. An important figure of the center left, she has been secretary of the Committee of Social Ministers of the government of President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1995-1997) and Minister of State during the first administration of Michelle Bachelet (between March and December 2009).

In 2012 she became the first mayor of the municipality of Santiago.

Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency: Ana Lya Uriarte

The environmental lawyer Ana Lya Uriarte (Santiago, 60 years old), from the Socialist Party, was until now the chief of staff of the former Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches.

Key figure during the two governments of Michelle Bachelet: she was the first minister president of the Board of Directors of the National Commission for the Environment (2007-2010) -a body that laid the foundations of the current Ministry of the Environment- and chief of staff in the second mandate (2014-2018), the same position that he assumed this Tuesday.

She studied law at the University of Chile, where she later worked as an assistant professor and researcher at the Center for Environmental Law.

Ministry of Energy: Diego Pardow

The lawyer and doctor of law Diego Pardow (Madrid, 41 years old) is the son of exiled parents and lived until he was 10 years old in Spain.

Militant of Social Convergence, one of the formations that make up the Broad Front, he is a personal friend of President Gabriel Boric.

Until now he worked as an advisor on the "second floor" of La Moneda, as the iron circle of leaders is known.

Before entering the Government he was president of the Espacio Público study center.

He was the program coordinator for the presidential campaign of Boric, whom he has known since his years as a law student at the University of Chile.

Ministry of Health: Ximena Aguilera

Until now, the surgeon at the University of Chile and specialist in public health, Ximena Aguilera, served as director of the Center for Epidemiology and Health Policies of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD).

She also participated in the National Pandemic Response Commission as president of the expert commission.

She has been a consultant for international organizations such as the WHO, the UNDP and the World Bank.

She has vast prior experience in the Ministry of Health.

She was national head of Epidemiology (1999-2005) and head of the Health Planning division (2005-2008).

She was also the Pan American Health Organization's senior advisor for communicable diseases during the H1N1 flu, known as swine flu.

Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation: Silvia Díaz

Silvia Díaz (Quillota, 35 years old) is the first woman to assume the leadership of this ministry created in 2018, where she participated in its formation.

The doctor in Chemistry from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile has been working since 2018 as scientific director at the Encuentros del Futuro Foundation, an entity in charge of coordinating and executing the Future Congress science dissemination event.

She is a member of the center-left Party for Democracy, she served as executive director of the Center for Geroscience, Mental Health and Metabolism (GERO) and was part of research teams of excellence belonging to the Millennium scientific initiative.

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América

and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region.