Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has reshuffled her cabinet replacing the ministers of education, the interior and the economy, government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber said on Friday.

 

Belisario Velasco will replace Andres Zaldivar Larrain as interior minister, Yasna Provoste Campillay will take over the education ministry from Martin Zilic, and Alejandro Ferreiro, head of Chile's securities regulation under the country's last government, will replace Ingrid Antonijevic as economy minister.

 

The cabinet reshuffle comes six weeks after nationwide student strikes and massive flooding and landslides this week that have killed at least 15 people.

 

Velasco previously served as deputy interior minister under a previous government from the same center-left Coalition for Democracy as Bachelet. Immediately prior to his appointment, Velasco was president of the National Television Council.

 

Provoste was planning minister in the government of Ricardo Lagos, who ceded the presidency to Bachelet in March.

 

Prior to the reshuffle, the ministers of finance, housing and health were also called in to see Bachelet, Chile's first woman president. Those three ministers keep their posts.

 

The student protests in May and June had a strong effect on Bachelet's approval ratings, which fell 10 points to 44 percent, according to a poll published last week by researcher Adimark.

 

The reshuffle maintained the 50-50 male-female ratio she aimed to have in her cabinet.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2006)