Chile president Pinera sacks FM in cabinet shakeup

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera sacked his foreign minister and announced a cabinet reshuffle Thursday as polls showed a dip in his popularity following an economic downturn.

Pinera, a billionaire conservative, said at a ceremony at his La Moneda palace that Teodoro Rivera would replace Roberto Ampuero as foreign minister after pollster CEP showed Pinera's popularity plummeting 12 points.

Pinera also dropped the ministers of health, economy, public works, social development and energy as he sought to bring fresh blood into the cabinet and kickstart the economy.

"I want to share with all my compatriots some changes to the cabinet that I consider necessary," Pinera said, announcing the shake-up.

The reshuffle is the second by Pinera since he won the December 2017 election to succeed leftist Michelle Bachelet.

A spokesman for pollster CEP, Ricardo Gonzalez, said: "There is a deterioration of economic expectations and also a bad perception of the management of President Pinera."

The ...