March 18 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on Wednesday that General Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez will take over as defense minister from General Vladimir Padrino, a long-time powerbroker
close to ousted President Nicolas Maduro.
The change is the most important yet in Rodriguez’s cabinet and marks the demotion of a general who controlled Venezuela’s sprawling military for 11 years under Maduro.
“I inform the country that today I have appointed Major General Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez as Minister of People’s Power for Defense,” Rodriguez said in a post on Telegram, thanking Padrino, 62, for his service and adding he will be given new responsibilities.
Rodriguez in January appointed Gonzalez Lopez, 65, as the head of the presidential guard and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM).
Gonzalez Lopez, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and EU for rights violations and corruption, previously served as Venezuela’s domestic intelligence director until mid-2024. Later that year, he began working with Rodriguez as head of strategic affairs at state oil company PDVSA, which she then oversaw as energy minister. He is also a former interior minister and joined the armed forces in his early twenties.
Gonzalez Lopez’s promotion will not mark a major change in Rodriguez’s policy of compliance with U.S. demands on oil, mining and the release of some people classed as political prisoners, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
“I see it as a situation in which the entire relationship with the Americans is concentrated in a few people, and they are the ones they trust the most,” the source said. “I think it is simply about appointing someone who will deal with the United States.”
Sources had previously told Reuters that Gonzalez Lopez’s appointment to head the presidential guard and DGCIM was an early gambit by Rodriguez to counter what many say is the biggest threat to her leadership: Diosdado Cabello, the hardline interior minister who has close ties to the security services and dreaded ‘colectivo’ motorcycle gangs which have been accused of killing opposition supporters.
Cabello has been vociferous in his public support for Rodriguez and joined her and her brother Jorge, the head of the legislature, at numerous public events. Reuters reporting has shown Cabello was holding talks with Trump administration officials months before the U.S. operation to seize Maduro, though Cabello has denied any such contact.
The Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles all press queries for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the change.
Gonzalez Lopez will be replaced as the head of DGCIM by naval admiral German Gomez Larez, who previously oversaw the country’s ports, Rodriguez said in a statement, while General Henry Navas will take over the presidential guard.
LONG-TIME LOYALIST
Padrino, who has also been sanctioned by the U.S. over alleged drug trafficking and his support for Maduro, once directed the ceremonial section of the presidential guard under late President Hugo Chavez. But his star fully rose under Maduro, who made him defense minister in late 2014.
Sources have told Reuters that Padrino was likely to be replaced and had been kept in his position after the U.S. capture of Maduro to ensure stability in the military, where some 2,000 generals control disparate groups of poorly paid troops, as well as huge business interests.
Padrino, who appeared on state television soon after Maduro’s capture to say Venezuela would resist foreign troops and whose military was preparing ‘guerrilla-style’ attacks to confront an invasion, has instead worked with Rodriguez to meet U.S. demands.
He said in his own statement that it had been “the greatest honor of my life to serve the nation” and offered his congratulations to Gonzalez Lopez, who he said he had known since they were at the military academy together.
Despite the U.S. intervention, Venezuela’s repressive apparatus remains intact, the United Nations said last week. Venezuela’s government has always denied human rights violations against civil society and its political opposition, as well as accusations of corruption within the military.
(Reporting by Reuters, editing by Deepa Babington and Alistair Bell)
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