Pinochet shuffles Chile Cabinet

President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte swore in six new Cabinet ministers in a government reshuffle that follows the september plebiscite giving him eight more years in office.

Monitor Latin America correspondent James Nelson Goodsell notes that the shuffle also affected the University of Chile, where student unrest has been growing. Gen. Alejandro Medina Lois, who had been health minister, was named university rector, replacing Gen. Enrique Morel Donoso, who held the post just three weeks.

The Cabinet changes bring more military men into the government but were not expected to immediately alter any government policies. However, there is little doubt that General Pinochet sees the growing student and labor unrest as a threat to his rule.

This unrest has begun to spread beyond Santiago and some observers see it as a sign of opposition to the Pinochet rule. The military came to power in a brutal coup d'etat in 1973 that toppled President Salvador Allende Gossens from power.