Venezuelan President Appoints New Cabinet, Vice President
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appointed a new cabinet and replaced his vice president Wednesday night in a move to turn around the oil-rich country’s hobbled economy.
Among the key positions, Mr. Maduro named Luis Salas, a young leftist economics professor at Bolivarian University who has blamed capitalism for Venezuela’s problems, as his new economy minister.
Central University of Venezuela economics Prof. Rodolfo Medina was named finance minister, and Jesús Faria, a former legislator and Communist Party leader, became the minister in charge of foreign investment.
Mr. Maduro appointed a longtime Socialist ally, Aristóbulo Istúriz, governor of the oil-rich state of Anzoátegui, as his new vice president. Mr. Istúriz, the first Afro-Caribbean to reach such a post in Venezuela, replaces Jorge Arreaza, a son-in-law of Mr. Chavez, who is moving to the Education Ministry, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Wednesday’s cabinet announcement was slated to offer clues on how Mr. Maduro plans to rescue Venezuela’s economy, which the International Monetary Fund says could contract by 6% in 2016 after the economy shrunk by an estimated 10% in 2015, the worst performance outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
“We’re going to take this fatherland forward,” Mr. Maduro promised after introducing his cabinet. “Don’t think for a second that we can’t help this country overcome from it’s oil [economic model] and from capitalism.”
Mr. Maduro’s new economic team has offered similar explanations for the South American nation’s troubles. In a March interview with the state news agency, Mr. Salas cited neoliberalism and sabotage as the country’s top economic challenges and insisted that inflation rates under the current Socialist government are better than prerevolutionary governments.
Highlighting the credentials of his new finance minister, Mr. Maduro called Mr. Medina, “the Evo Morales of economy,” a nod to the president of Bolivia, a leftist ally.
