Senior military leaders are being replaced by the Venezuelan leader.

 

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez (left) was pictured walking with Gen Gustavo González López (right) in Caracas, Venezuela, on 19 March(Image: Reuters)

Delcy Rodrguez, Venezuela's interim leader, has appointed new senior military commanders just one day after appointing a new defense minister. Thursday, Rodrguez made the announcement, claiming that the new appointments would ensure Venezuela's "sovereignty, peace, stability, and territorial integrity." After US President Donald Trump's January 1st raid in Venezuela and capture of President Nicolás Maduro, the top defense team in Caracas was reorganized. Since then, Rodrguez has distanced herself from her predecessor's rule and worked closely with Washington, resuming diplomatic relations with Washington at the beginning of March.

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Among the new military appointments, Rodríguez said Dilio Alejandro Agüero Montes would be the new navy commander, Royman Antonio Hernández Briceño the new air force commander, and Rubén Darío Belzares Escobar the new army commander.

 Rodrguez announced her interim government's cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, which included firing Vladimir Padrino López, a ally of Maduro. As she thanked Padrino for his service and "loyalty to the country," Rodrguez announced Gustavo González López as the new defense minister in a Telegram post. Provea, a group that monitors human rights, described the new appointment as a "recycling of impunity." Padrino had been in office as defence minister for 12 years and was one of Maduro's staunch supporters.

 Reacting to the news that he had been replaced, he said it had been "the highest honour of my life to serve my country as a soldier and to protect peace and national unity during all these years".

 He then went on to congratulate González López on the new position. He talked about how the two of them have known each other since their early careers, and he was sure that under his peer's leadership, the armed forces would "emerge stronger."

The acting Venezuelan leader welcomed the new defence minister and his team of military commanders to the presidential palace on Thursday (Image: Reuters)

     During Maduro's administration, González López served as the head of Venezuela's intelligence service (Sebin) twice, from 2014 to 2018 and from 2019 to 2024. Juanita Goebertus, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, stated in an interview with BBC Mundo that appointing him as defense minister "means keeping the repressive structure intact and rewarding someone who should be investigated for very serious human rights violations, including torture or arbitrary detentions." Goebertus was referring to the appointment of Goebertus as the defense minister. President Barack Obama of the United States sanctioned González López in 2015. The White House alleged he was "responsible for or complicit in ... significant acts of violence or conduct that constitutes a serious abuse or violation of human rights".

 In addition, Obama's team said that his position as Sebin's director general played a "prominent role in the repressive actions against the civil population during the protests in Venezuela" and that the country's intelligence personnel "committed hundreds of forced entries and extrajudicial detentions." In her announcement of González López as the new defense chief, Rodrguez expressed her confidence in his leadership rather than casting any doubt on his suitability for the position.

Source: BBC

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