Caracas, Venezuela — The cupboard of Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has seen some shake ups in current days, with the appointments of a handful of latest ministers in an obvious try to consolidate energy simply months after her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, was captured by america.
The reshuffling of officers within the ministries of Protection, Transportation, Housing, Tradition, Electrical Energy, and Greater Schooling is a transfer by Rodríguez to purchase time and stay in energy longer, based on Benigno Alarcón, founding father of the Heart for Political and Authorities Research at Andrés Bello Catholic College in Caracas.
“I imagine that what Delcy Rodríguez is attempting to do is a political reshuffle inside the authorities, aiming to remain in energy so long as doable in order that when an election is held, it will likely be one which she will be able to management to some extent,” he informed Latin America Reviews.
Alarcón believes that the roadmap proposed by the Trump administration after its January 3 assaults has not but entered its most crucial part — a political transition — exactly due to resistance from diehards within the Chavismo motion.
“We’re seeing that the political impasse continues, so we can’t say we face a transition at this second. It is very important keep in mind that [U.S. Secretary of State] Marco Rubio’s plan outlined a three-phase technique, with the third part being the transition. Effectively, clearly we haven’t entered that part but, and clearly Delcy Rodríguez is attempting to stop us from getting into it,” he commented.
Ministerial adjustments missing in scope
The current appointments don’t ship a transparent sign {that a} democratic reinstitutionalization is definitely going down within the nation, based on the professor, since those that have been named ministers thus far are a part of the Chavista internal circle.
“What they’re principally doing is inserting folks whose deserves, let’s say, are basically their closeness to and the belief of these in energy, proper? In different phrases, in that sense, nothing has modified; all the pieces stays kind of the identical,” he acknowledged.
Alarcón defined that there’s a “recycling” of Chavista figures. “Some folks from a faction inside Chavismo are leaving, and others are coming in — let’s say as a result of up to now they had been both marginalized, ignored, or had their likelihood after which had been unnoticed, and now they’re coming again,” he added.
Recycling Chavismo
The brand new ministers appointed by Rodríguez are:
- Gustavo González López as Minister of Protection;
- Jorge Márquez Monsalve as Minster of Housing;
- The engineer Rolando Alcalá because the Minister Vitality and Electrical energy;
- Jacqueline Faría as Transport Minister;
- Justice of the Peace Carlos Alexis Castillo because the Minister of Social Strategy of Labor;
- Editor Raúl Cazal as Tradition Minister;
- Professor Ana María Sanjuán as Minister of College Schooling, Science and Expertise.
A transparent instance of Alarcón’s so-called Chavista recycling is Gustavo González López, who now heads the Ministry of Protection, changing Vladimir Padrino López — a key determine in Maduro’s authorities who held that place for over 10 years, making him the longest-serving minister in in that ministry’s historical past.
Earlier than becoming a member of the Ministry of Protection, González López was appointed in January 2026 by Rodríguez to guide the direct safety of the presidency and army counterintelligence.
Moreover, in late 2024, he performed a key function within the oil business as Director of Strategic Affairs and Manufacturing Management.
The army officer can also be recognized for having led the Bolivarian Nationwide Intelligence Service (SEBIN) for 2 phrases (2014–2018 and 2019–2024). Underneath his command, the company centralized a lot of the interior political management.
“I imagine that what Maduro did on the time was to put, so to talk, the army part within the palms of a normal he trusted, Vladimir Padrino López, and go away the army to him, making him a bridge between the civilian political sector and the army sector. Effectively, at this level, the bridge was modified, so to talk. So now you’ve got González López as Delcy’s right-hand man, as a result of he labored together with her up to now, first as director of SEBIN,” Alarcón stated.
The reconfiguration of Rodríguez’s cupboard appears to reply extra, based on Alarcón, to a method of inside safety than to a democratic opening.
Whereas the names within the portfolios are being recycled and the bridges with the army sector are being strengthened with figures of utmost belief, the true transition proposed by the worldwide group stays in limbo.
Featured picture: Delcy Rodríguez at a current naval ceremony.
Picture credit score: Vice Presidency of Venezuela
