Chile’s student protest movement claimed its second ministerial victim today when President Sebastian Pinera named Harald Beyer to replace Felipe Bulnes as education minister.

Bulnes took over from Joaquin Lavin in July, a month after the start of protests that shuttered hundreds of state schools and led to almost weekly clashes with police in the streets of Santiago in the second half of the year.

While the scale of protests has subsided, Beyer will face an increasingly radicalized student movement. Earlier this month, University of Chile students ousted Communist Party member Camila Vallejo as president in favor of Gabriel Boric, who advocates a harder line against the government. The protests helped push Pinera’s approval rating to 23 percent, the lowest for any president since the return of democracy two decades ago, according to an opinion poll released today. Pinera also named Luis Mayol as the new agriculture minister today.

“Chile’s Student Protests Claim Their Second Ministerial Victim,” Randall Woods and Sebastian Boyd, Bloomberg, December 29, 2011. 

Our new Chile episode about student protests and politics airs next Monday, January 2, 2012 at 2230 GMT/ 5:30p EST on Al Jazeera English. 

Source: businessweek.com

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