Venezuelan leader replaces senior military commanders

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Malu Cursino

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Handout via REUTERS

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

Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, has replaced her country’s senior military commanders one day after appointing a new defence minister.

Announcing the move on Thursday, Rodríguez said the new appointments would guarantee Venezuela’s “sovereignty, peace, stability and territorial integrity”.

The shake-up to Caracas’ top defence team follows US President Donald Trump’s Venezuela raid and capture of President Nicolás Maduro in early January.

Since then Rodríguez has distanced herself from her predecessor’s rule and has closely cooperated with Washington, with the two countries restoring diplomatic relations at the start of March.

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.

On Wednesday, Rodríguez unveiled a cabinet reshuffle to her interim government, which included sacking Maduro-ally Vladimir Padrino López as defence minister.

In a post on Telegram, Rodríguez announced Gustavo González López as the new defence minister, as she thanked Padrino for his service and “loyalty to the country”.

Human rights watchdog Provea called the new appointment 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 went on to offer his congratulations to González López on the new appointment, recalling how the pair have known each other since their early career days and he was certain the armed forces would “emerge stronger” under his peer’s leadership.

Handout via REUTERS

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

González López had been the head of Venezuela’s intelligence service (Sebin) during Maduro’s government on two occasions, between 2014 and 2018 and between 2019 and 2024.

In an interview with BBC Mundo, director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, Juanita Goebertus, said appointing him as defence 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”.

In 2015, the then-US President Barack Obama sanctioned González López. 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”.

Obama’s team went on to specify his role as Sebin’s director general as a “prominent role in the repressive actions against the civil population during the protests in Venezuela,” adding that the country’s intelligence personnel “committed hundreds of forced entries and extrajudicial detentions”.

In her announcement of González López as the new defence chief, Rodríguez cast no doubt over his integrity for the role, voicing instead her confidence in his leadership.

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