Reuters and AP
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 28, 2024, p. 31
Caracas. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced changes to his cabinet yesterday, one month after the elections in which he won re-election, and in which the opposition alleges, without proof, that there was fraud.
The changes include the return to the cabinet of the number two in government and leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, as head of the Ministry of the Interior, and a change of functions for Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who will maintain that position, but will add that of Minister of Petroleum.
Disagreement over the outcome of the July 28 vote has sparked protests, international calls for the release of the results and moves by prosecutors to investigate opposition figures and arrest leaders and journalists who have allegedly spread false information and instigated violence. The opposition insists that change is still possible.
I wanted to make a deep remodeling of the national government and put together a new team.said Maduro, who added that it accelerates the changes that the people need.
Cabello, a politician and military officer with the rank of lieutenant and a close ally of the late Hugo Chávez, who previously held the Interior portfolio, returns to the cabinet after more than a decade.
Today, I believe that Venezuela is heading towards definitive peace, a peace with justice.Cabello said.
▲ Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shows a copy of The Blue Bookof the late Hugo Chávez, yesterday during the announcement of cabinet changes.Photo Afp/Presidency of Venezuela
▲ Diosdado Cabello, leader of the PSUV (in file image), who became head of the Ministry of the Interior.Photo Afp/Presidency of Venezuela
Later, he reported that the electrical system suffered a power outage last night terrorist attack by part of opposition sectors and announced a police campaign in areas where the service was cut off.
In an interview with Venezolana de Televisión, Cabello said that at 7:16 p.m. yesterday (local time) the attack was carried out terrorist attack on line 765, which started in Valle de la Pascua, in Guárico, and affected the western region and part of the center of the country. He indicated that workers from the National Electric Corporation are already addressing the situation.
This is one of the strategies that opposition sectors, enemies of this country, have constantly used to affect the people. They attacked a transmission tower; the location has already been detected and we have normalized the system.accurate.
Yván Gil and Vladimir Padrino will remain in their respective roles as foreign minister and defense minister, Maduro said.
Anabel Pereira is the new Minister of Finance, who has been in charge of restructuring the cryptocurrency organization after a corruption plot was uncovered at the state-owned PDVSA.
Héctor Obregón is the new president of PDVSA, replacing Pedro Tellechea, who will move to Industry and National Production.
The restructuring also saw the replacement of the ministers of Agriculture and Land, Finance and Foreign Trade, as well as Education and Labour.