Chile’s Sernapesca appoints acting director

Jessica Fuentes has been appointed as acting national director of Chile’s national fisheries and aquaculture service, Sernapesca, stepping up from her position as deputy legal director at the same government entity.

Fuentes is a lawyer by profession, with experience in the fisheries and aquaculture field. She served for five years as head of the legal division at the Undersecretariat of Fisheries in Chile, and also as legislative advisor in sectoral matters for the same undersecretariat and for the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism.

She has been with Sernapesca since 2015, originally joining as an advisor on legislative matters before being confirmed in 2017 as deputy legal director. She has worked on the discussion and processing of various bills on fisheries and aquaculture, and played a part in drafting the Sernapesca Modernization Bill, which was approved and promulgated by Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in February 2019.

Fuentes will hold the position of acting director until the government formally designates a new director. She replaces Alicia Gallardo Lagno, who was recently appointed as the new undersecretary of fisheries and aquaculture for a regulatory agency known as Subpesca. Gallardo Lagno – who is the first woman to hold that position in the nearly 45 years of the department’s existence – has said that she will focus on sector sustainability.

In turn, Gallardo Lagno replaced outgoing undersecretary Román Zelaya, who stepped down in order to run as a candidate in Chile’s constitutional convention process. During the national referendum held in October 2020, more than 78 percent of those voting came out in favor of a new constitution, to be drawn up by a body elected by popular vote.

Photo courtesy of Sernapesca

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