Chile's president appoints new education, agriculture ministers

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera on Thursday appointed Harald Beyer as new education minister and Luis Mayol as agriculture minister, replacing Felipe Bulnes and Jose Antonio Galilea, respectively. The education minister's replacement has received the most attention because Bulnes faced a very difficult time in his last eight months in office as students held massive rallies to protest against the degradation of the nation's public education system. Beyer, a prominent economist and researcher from the country's Center of Public Studies, is considered one of the main education experts in Chile. The new education minister will be in charge of leading the reforms in the education system to meet the students' demands. Both Bulnes and Galilea had resigned earlier, citing personal reasons.