Education appoints Labraña as presidential representative on the university board of directors

The Ministry of Education accepted the resignation of Mario Artidoro Venegas Cárdenas and appointed Julio Alberto Labraña Vargas as a member of the Board of Directors of the University of La Frontera, representing the President of the Republic. The decision was formalized in supreme decree No. 202, signed in Santiago on August 26, 2026, and published this Monday, October 19, in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, in its Section I (General Norms), with official reference CVE 2884650.

The administrative act was processed by the Undersecretariat of Higher Education and is based on Law No. 21,094, on State Universities, and Law No. 21,091, on Higher Education. The text recalls that letter a) of Article 4 of the decree with force of law No. 156, of 1981, from the Ministry of Public Education, which established the statute of the University of La Frontera, stipulated that the Board of Directors was composed, among others, of “three Directors appointed by the President of the Republic, who shall remain in said positions as long as they hold his confidence.”

Venegas Cárdenas had been appointed to that position through supreme decree No. 78, of 2024, from the Ministry of Education. His departure was formalized through a letter submitted on July 23, 2026, and the replacement process was requested by the University Education Division of the Undersecretariat of Higher Education via internal memorandum No. 06/790, dated August 12, 2026.

Resignation with a certain date and immediate assumption

Decree No. 202 is organized into three articles that precisely establish the effects of the change in the university leadership:

• Article 1: the resignation, as of July 23, 2026, of Mario Artidoro Venegas Cárdenas, RUN 8.385.479-0, as representative of the President of the Republic to the Board of Directors of the University of La Frontera, is accepted.
• Article 2: Julio Alberto Labraña Vargas, RUN 16.284.972-7, is appointed, as of the date of the decree, as a member of the Board of Directors representing the President of the Republic.
• Article 3: it is established that the new member, for reasons of good service, shall assume his duties from the date of his appointment, without waiting for the full processing of the decree.

The instrument bears the signatures of the President of the Republic, José Antonio Kast Rist, and the Minister of Education, María Paz Arzola González, and was submitted with the rubric of the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Fernanda Valdés Raczynski.

The background accompanying the appointment

The file supporting the appointment includes documents regarding the trajectory and contractual situation of the new director:

• Sociology degree certificate of Julio Alberto Labraña Vargas, issued by the University of Concepción.
• TRA Decree No. 335/60/2022, dated November 2, 2022, from the University of Tarapacá, which appointed him to the position of Director.
• Certificate No. 279/2026, dated August 2026, from the Head of the People Management Division of the University of La Frontera, certifying that the appointee maintains no current contractual link with that institution.
• Official Letter Ord. No. 292, dated August 4, 2026, from the Rector of the University of La Frontera.

A board of directors with an announced end date

The appointment occurs amidst the transition toward the new statute of the educational institution, approved by decree with the force of law No. 25, of 2023, from the Ministry of Education, published in the Official Gazette on June 11, 2024, and in effect since July 1 of that year. This regulatory body creates the Superior Council as “the highest collegiate body of the University,” composed, among others, of three representatives of the President of the Republic.

The fourth paragraph of the fourth transitory article specifies that, “once the Superior Council is installed, the Board of Directors shall cease its functions.” According to the Rector’s official letter, the Superior Council would be fully installed “no earlier than December 2026,” with an estimated effective constitution “for the first semester of 2027, between the months of January and March,” subject to the approval of electoral regulations, the development of the elections, and adjustments inherent to the process.

The change in presidential representation directly affects the balance of the Board of Directors of the University of La Frontera within a limited period: the new member will hold the position as long as that body remains in effect, that is, until the installation of the Superior Council planned for the first semester of 2027. The publication of decree No. 202 thus formalizes, effective from August 26, the departure of Venegas Cárdenas and the arrival of Labraña Vargas to the collegiate leadership of the state institution.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44,577, Monday, October 19, 2026, Section I (General Norms), page 1 (official reference: CVE 2884650).