Chilean President Begins Reshuffling Cabinet Amid Record Low Approval

President of Chile Michelle Bachelet said that the country's FM Heraldo Munoz will keep his job in the cabinet after her announcement that she asked all her current ministers to resign.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — President of Chile Michelle Bachelet said Thursday that the country's Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz will keep his job in the cabinet she pledged to reshuffle, Chilean El Mercurio newspaper reported citing government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde.

Late on Wednesday, Bachelet announced on Chilean television that she asked all her current ministers to resign. She is to decide on who of them will keep their positions with 72 hours.

"In case of the foreign minister [Heraldo Munoz], the president has a very good performance evaluation… he is ratified in his position," Elizalde said.

Bachelet, a Socialist Party politician and Chile's first woman president was elected to second term in March 2014. Less than a year since, she found herself in the middle of a scandal with opposition accusing her son of exerting pressure on banks to secure a $10 million loan for his wife's company.

In April 2015, according to the Centro de Estudious Publicos, Bachelet's approval rating sank to a record low of 29 percent as opposed to an average of 80 percent during her first term as a president of Chile, from March 2006 to March 2010.