Romero has been replaced by his deputy, Claudia Peña Claros, an expert in social communications who had been in the job since February 2010. With the appointment of Peña Claros, whose immediate priority is to continue the process of drawing up autonomy statutes for the country's nine regions, Morales inadvertently makes good his commitment to introduce complete gender parity in his cabinet, with 10 female and 10 male ministers. The latest reshuffle also brings the total number of cabinet changes undertaken by Morales in the 17 months of his second mandate to 11, a high turnover which has left him open to criticism and accusations of weakness and improvisation at the top. This was particularly pronounced over his failed attempt at scrapping fuel subsidies, which triggered various changes [WR-11-04], chief of which was in the crucial energy portfolio: Morales is currently on his sixth energy minister since 2006. Only the foreign and economy ministers, David Choquehuanca and Luis Arce Catacora, have held their posts since Morales first took office in 2006.
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