MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tibet and impeached minister mark a new low for M. Bachelet

The government of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet marked this week a new low when her Education minister was impeached and barred five years from office, and the Lower House approved a proposal condemning repression in Tibet and calling on Beijing to hold talks with the Dalai Lama.

Education Minister Yasna Provoste had already been suspended by the Lower House of parliament and she lost a Senate motion of confidence by one vote. She is accused of failing to account for the disappearance of millions of dollars of school subsidies. She was the first Chilean minister to be impeached in 36 years, and it forecasts a rough time for Ms Bachelet in her last two years in office. A probe by official auditors found that subsidies had been paid to school which overstated the number of pupils they had enrolled involving "negligence" in the management of 577 millions of dollars. President Bachelet's government defended Ms Provoste arguing that any financial discrepancies should be attributed to accounting mistakes and saying pressure for her removal was "politically motivated". However the government was beaten in the Senate by the votes of a handful of rebels who had recently defected, giving the opposition a parliamentary majority. This means the centre left coalition that has been ruling Chile since the return of democracy in 1990 will be forced in the person of Ms Bachelet, to negotiate with the conservative opposition the approval of future legislative initiatives. The Conservative opposition made up of two main parties effectively took control of Congress when dissidents from the junior member of the ruling coalition, the Christian Democrats declared themselves an independent group. Another blow for Ms Bachelet came this week following her visit to China where she signed a statement in support of the "one China policy", and therefore Tibet as a Chinese province. The Lower House approved an initiative proposed by an independent deputy condemning repression in Tibet and calling on China to talk with the spiritual leader Dalai Lama. The initiative had the support from some of the ruling coalition Congress members. Although the initiative was sitting in Congress since March 18, it was agreed to be considered when Ms Bachelet returned from her trip to China who had been specially invited to a business forum. A member of Congress who traveled with Ms Bachelet, Jorge Tarud and former ambassador in China tried unsuccessfully to convince his colleagues saying that Beijing officials had warned that any statement on Tibet and recent events "could lead to a freezing of relations". The final vote in support of the proposal included 10 members of the ruling coalition, 18 conservatives and 7 independents. The proposal requests Foreign Affairs minister Alejandro Foxley to protest violence and repression in Tibet and call on the Chinese government to begin direct talks with Dalai Lama for a peaceful solution to the situation. Once informed Foxley said that the Executive is most respectful of Congress but "foreign policy is defined and must continue to be defined by government following on the long term interests of Chile" "We have a long term strategy with China, and this a state policy", underlined Foxley although "in a democracy Congress has the right to express its opinion on all issues".