The social development minister of Chile’s Cabinet has resigned, according to President Gabriel Boric, who made the announcement on Thursday. This is the first change to his young administration since it took office in March.
Following a news report that one of her advisers had spoken to a radical Mapuche indigenous leader who had called for an armed struggle against the state and who had been arrested on Wednesday, Social Development Minister Jeanette Vega resigned.
The decision is a setback for Boric’s center-left government, which was elected with a high turnout. But as a crucial vote on a new constitution, he has backed approaches, and Boric has watched his support quickly dwindle.
Prior to the constitutional vote, Boric previously declared he would refrain from making changes to the Cabinet.
At a ceremony in northern Chile, Boric urged caution. It is appropriate to consider the weight of the minister’s political responsibility in light of what we have learned.
An adviser to Vega spoke with Hector Llaitul, the head of an indigenous Mapuche organisation, according to a confidential police record that was leaked earlier in the day by the online news source Ex-Ante.
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Llaitul was taken into custody on Wednesday in the country’s troubled south, where raging disputes over land ownership and the forestry sector continue between the Chilean government and indigenous groups. He is charged with stealing timber and challenging the law.
Boric stated that he was “worried” about the news release of legal documents.
In May, the same month her adviser contacted Llaitul, Vega raised controversy by claiming that Chile had detained several Mapuche as political prisoners. She later claimed that there had been a miscommunication.
(with inputs from agencies)
