The appointment of Paula Labra Besserer as Seremi of Health of the Metropolitan Region brought with it a wave of criticism. Her degree as a commercial engineer at the University of The Development of Concepción did not leave the health guilds alone or some local authorities.
Her experience of a couple of years as an intervener of the Metropolitan Compin and then as national director of the institution, was considered “insufficient” by the officials of the ministerial Secretary themselves, where they emphasized that Labra’s appointment responds “more to a political issue”, since the Minister of Health himself, Jaime Mañalich, would have sought to install someone close, known and in the way of his working style , someone oblivious to the internal noise generated by the former Seremi, Rosa Oyarce.
Labra is not an issue within officialism, it is recognized as close to National Renewal. A year after she became a commercial engineer, she took over as an advisor to the Seremi of Economics in the BioBío Region and months later, she arrived in Santiago to assume the head of Administration and Finance of the Seremi of Metropolitan Health, which at the time was in charge of Oyarce, whom he finally ended up officially replacing this Friday, April 17.
According to Minsal sources, it was during the two years that he held the head of administration and finance that he managed to strengthen ties with Minister Mañalich’s circle of trust.
Labra is considered part of Chile Vamos’s replacement generation, as noted by the Government. A kind of “dream team”, a group of supporters and militants of the right-wing parties, all under 40, who stood out during their university years and who were “trained to hold positions” in the state.
That’s why no one was surprised that Labra, who was perfecting himself in project management, administration and finance for the past five years, took over the Minsal Administration and Services department. At the same time, he was perfected in the area of health during 2019, by pursuing a diploma in Health Authority and Management in Public Health at the University of the Andes, which would have been supported by his direct authorities.
The engineer came back to the government by under Secretary Paula Daza, with whom she would have a “very good relationship”, which is why – chilean sources come from Go on – she has all the confidence of “her highest commanders”, taking on the task of the Seremi de Salud RM.
Part of the noise generated by Labra’s election is that the charge had never been occupied before by a professional who was not tied to the health area. Moreover, among the rest of the seremis is only one commercial engineer, Manuel Fernández, but who became director of the Hospital de Iquique for twelve years. That’s why yesterday made noise when the government appointed someone with so little experience in charge of the Metropolitan Region Health Service, even more so in a context of the health crisis that the country is going through with Coronavirus.
The management of Seremi officials Marcia Lara warned that it will be difficult to manage the pandemic “with two engineers in charge of strategic locations, (Artuto) Zuñiga in care networks and Labra in Seremi, we will simply be a number something to account for. The country and citizens deserve competent authorities, with a profile of positions, knowledge, career career.”
