Latin America Advisor

Peter Siavelis, professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University: “Giorgio Jackson’s resignation represents a major blow to President Gabriel Boric. Jackson is one of the president’s closest confidants from the 2011 student movement—a group of activists who catapulted themselves from the streets to the corridors of formal power. This second cabinet reshuffle within just 17 months underscores the instability within Boric’s government. However, this resignation is particularly harsh given Boric and Jackson’s close relationship as long-time friends and co-founders of the Frente Amplio coalition. Jackson cast his resignation as a move to eliminate the ‘excuses’ advanced by the right-wing opposition to hold up the president’s ambitious health care and pension reform agenda. The controversy surrounds irregular fund transfers of nearly half a million dollars to a private foundation tasked with aiding economically vulnerable populations and tied to the President’s Revolución Democrática party. What initially appeared to be an isolated incident quickly unraveled into a…”