Decree appoints Forlín Aguilera as rector of the University of Atacama

The President of the Republic, José Antonio Kast Rist, and the Minister of Education, María Paz Arzola González, signed Supreme Decree No. 208, which appoints Forlín Mauricio Aguilera Olivares as rector of the University of Atacama for a legal period of four years, starting September 18, 2026. The decision was published in the Official Gazette No. 44,597, on Thursday, November 12, 2026, in Section I, under official reference CVE 2898988. The decree was issued in Santiago on September 4, 2026, and transcribed by the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Fernanda Valdés Raczynski.

The appointment is based on the legal framework for state universities: Law No. 21,091 on Higher Education, Law No. 21,094 on State Universities, Law No. 19,305 on the election of the rector, and Decree with the Force of Law No. 13 of 2023, from the Ministry of Education, which approved the statute of the University of Atacama. According to that statute, the Superior Council is the highest collegiate body of the institution, and the rector is its highest single authority and legal representative, with a four-year mandate and the right to a single reelection for the immediately following period.

This is not a first appointment: Supreme Decree No. 137 of 2022, from the Ministry of Education, had appointed Aguilera Olivares to the same position for four years starting September 17, 2022. The new decree extends his leadership until 2030, in the period that the University of Atacama itself identifies as the 2026-2030 electoral process.

The electoral process that supported the designation

The processing of the decree was based on a sequence of internal and administrative acts detailed in the official text:

• Exempt Resolution No. 477, dated June 26, 2026, from the University of Atacama, approved the regulations calling for the election of the rector and governing the 2026-2030 process, in accordance with the agreement of the Superior Council.
• The institution’s Electoral Committee, in minutes dated July 29, 2026, proclaimed Forlín Aguilera Olivares as the elected candidate for the position.
• The university’s general secretary certified on July 30, 2026, that the Superior Council approved those proclamation minutes.
• Memorandum No. 6/861, dated September 3, 2026, from the University Education Division of the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, requested the management of the appointment and attached the background information of the case.

Academic trajectory of the appointed rector

The file incorporates the training and career records of the appointee, who served as an academic at the institution itself:

• Kinesiology degree conferred by the Universidad de Tarapacá on December 30, 2005.
• Status of full-time associate professor level B-5, tenured faculty at the Universidad de Atacama, according to certificate No. 881/2026, dated August 27, 2026.
• Academic positions held at the institution since 2013, accredited in certificate No. 615/2026, dated July 7, 2026.
• RUN 13.760.526-0, as stated in Article 1 of the decree.

Immediate validity and official status

Article 2 establishes that the rector shall maintain, for the duration of the appointment, the ownership of his position as a full-time associate professor level B-5 of the tenured faculty, pursuant to letter f) of Article 87 of the Administrative Statute. Article 3, meanwhile, provides that Aguilera Olivares shall assume his duties from the date of his appointment, for reasons of efficient service, without waiting for the full processing of the decree. Thus, the publication in the Diario Oficial formalizes a leadership already initiated in September.

This definition is relevant because it concerns a regional state university: the decree settles the leadership of its academic and student community for the next four years and confirms the continuity of an authority who assumes the position with the support of the institution’s Superior Council and Electoral Committee, in addition to the ratification of the President of the Republic and the Ministry of Education.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44,597, Thursday, November 12, 2026, Section I, pp. 1-2 (official reference: CVE 2898988).