Barely a month after the elections in Venezuela and with all the protests surrounding their results, President Nicolás Maduro has announced important appointments within his government. This Tuesday, he appointed the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, as the new Minister of Oil, and the considered “number two” of Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, as the new Minister of Interior and Justice.
These changes are part of a “renewal” of “half” of the Executive Cabinet to form a “popular government” and build “territorial socialism” – in the words of Nicolás Maduro -, with changes also in the portfolios of Agriculture, Tourism, Sports, Economy and Industries.
Rodríguez, until today Minister of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade, enters the oil portfolio replacing Pedro Tellechea, in office since March 2023 after the resignation of Tareck El Aissami, arrested for corruption. As of today, Tellechea will be Minister of Industry and National Production, while Anabel Pereira will enter the Economy portfolio, replacing Rodríguez, and Menry Fernández in that of Productive Agriculture and Land, where Wilmar Castro Soteldo held office for eight years, since 2016.
“Diosdado knows a lot about peace”
In a televised event, Maduro also announced the “promotion” of Diosdado Cabello, who in addition to being Minister of the Interior will also be “vice president of the government,” assuming that state portfolio headed by Remigio Ceballos, whose fate the president has not explained. “Diosdado brings good luck (…) he knows a lot about peace, he knows a lot about justice,” said Maduro, who highlighted Cabello’s ability to “consolidate peace” in the face of “so many conspiracies.”
After the announcement, Cabello, first vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), spoke and assured that he would work so that Venezuela “comes down the path of peace with justice” and that “those who have acted against the law” are prosecuted.
On July 30, Cabello threatened members of the majority opposition, including presidential election standard-bearer Edmundo González Urrutia and his main supporter, María Corina Machado, that they would “fuck them” after the two politicians rejected the electoral body’s victory for Maduro in the July elections.
At Tuesday’s event, Maduro confirmed in their positions the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, the chancellor, Yván Gil, as well as several ministers, including the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, the member of the executive branch with the longest tenure.
Maduro appointed the governor of the state of Miranda (north), Héctor Rodríguez, as Minister of Education, and Ricardo Sánchez as head of university education, while appointing Leticia Gómez as head of the Tourism portfolio, Grecia Colmenares as Youth portfolio, Arnaldo Sánchez as Sports minister, Magaly Viña as Ministry of Grandparents and Grandmothers, and Jhoanna Carrillo as Women’s minister.
According to the president, these are “necessary changes” to “combine the strength of the popular, revolutionary and socialist government of Venezuela” with “the stage that opened with the victory of July 28.” “This is the stage of construction of territorial socialism, of communal democracy, of direct democracy of the new system of government,” said Maduro, who ordered Rodríguez and the Minister of Communes and Social Movements, Ángel Prado, to convene “several days of work” to hold “community assemblies” in order to “listen to the people about the changes they want.”
Maduro made the announcement nearly a month after the country held a presidential election in which he was declared the winner by the National Electoral Council (CNE), a result disputed inside and outside the Caribbean nation and considered “fraudulent” by the majority opposition, which insists on the victory of its standard-bearer, Edmundo González Urrutia.
