Chile's deputy finance minister Juan Pablo Rodríguez resigns after positive drug test

President José Antonio Kast accepted the resignation of Juan Pablo Rodríguez as Subsecretary of Finance after a drug test administered in June returned a positive result. The minister of the Interior, Claudio Alvarado, explained that a prior test in April was negative, but the June sample was positive; the result remains provisional pending analysis of a contramuestra. Rodríguez denied any drug use, describing the outcome as an error, and announced he will undergo additional examinations in independent laboratories.

Tomás Bunster Bustamante, the ministry’s coordinator of Economic Regulation and chief advisor, has been appointed as the interim Subsecretary. Bunster is a civil engineer with a master's in engineering sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. The resignation occurs amid the government's push to pass a major reconstruction law that seeks to lower the corporate tax rate and address other fiscal reforms.