January 31, 2006

Women Get Half of Chile's Cabinet Posts

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 1:13 a.m. ET

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- President-elect Michelle Bachelet unveiled a Cabinet on Monday that fulfilled her campaign promise to give half the jobs to women and kept a balance among the four parties in her center-left coalition.

The defense and economy ministries were among the key posts given to women by Chile's first woman president. Bachelet also named a woman as her chief of staff.

''This Cabinet is in line with the major challenges we have ahead,'' said the 54-year-old socialist pediatrician, who was elected earlier this month and takes office on March 11.

''These are people with considerable intellectual, professional and political prestige,'' she said of the 10 men and 10 women in her Cabinet.

Bachelet said as soon as she takes office she will ask the legislature to create two new ministries -- public security and environment.

Female appointments include Vivianne Blanlot as defense minister, Paulina Veloso as Bachelet's chief of staff, Ingrid Antonijevic as economy minister and Clarisa Hardy as planning minister.

The Finance Ministry will be headed by Andres Velasco, an independent, fiscally conservative U.S.-educated economist. He is expected to continue the economic policies of the outgoing government, which maintained a healthy fiscal surplus and kept inflation firmly under control.

Bachelet's nominations maintained a clear balance among the parties making up the coalition backing her: seven Christian Democrats, nine from the two socialist groups, three independents and one from the smaller Social Democratic party.

Bachelet's election has generated demands from women in Chile and the region for more political power and greater social equality. There are only a handful of women with real political power in Latin America, including Argentine first lady and senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Peruvian former congresswoman Lourdes Flores, who is running in Peru's presidential election in April.

There have been at least half a dozen female presidents in Latin America before, but Bachelet is the first to earn her place without the help of a husband's political career in a region where many countries were slow to give women the right to vote.