MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela names its envoy to Washington as foreign minister in cabinet reshuffle

Plasencia, 53, is a career diplomat with more than three decades in Venezuela's foreign service

Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has appointed diplomat Félix Plasencia to head a new Ministry of Foreign Relations and Trade, merging the diplomatic and foreign trade portfolios. Plasencia had until now served as Venezuela's chief of mission in the United States, and replaces Yvan Gil, foreign minister since 2023, who moves to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Rodríguez announced the changes through her official channels. “I have appointed the internationalist Félix Plasencia, who has extensive diplomatic experience and will be tasked with directing Venezuelan foreign policy, defending our sovereignty, strengthening cooperative relations and promoting peace diplomacy in the world,” she wrote. The merger of the two ministries leaves out of the cabinet Johan Álvarez, who had headed Foreign Trade since March.

Plasencia, 53, is a career diplomat with more than three decades in Venezuela's foreign service. He previously served as foreign minister between August 2021 and May 2022, and was ambassador to China, the United Kingdom and Colombia, as well as tourism minister. He was named chief of mission in Washington in February of this year, amid the rapprochement between the two countries, whose diplomatic relations were restored in March after seven years of rupture. From that post he oversaw the issuing of licenses to the state oil company PDVSA and the lifting of restrictions in sectors such as gold.

The merging of diplomacy with the trade portfolio points to the approach the acting government seeks to take in its foreign policy, centered on economic recovery. Rodríguez assumed the acting presidency following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, and has made several cabinet changes in recent weeks. On July 5 she appointed Francisco Garcés as transport minister, and two days later named José David Cabello, brother of Chavista leader Diosdado Cabello, to head the state petrochemical company.

The reshuffle comes as the country grapples with the aftermath of the June 24 twin earthquakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, which struck the northern region and particularly the coastal state of La Guaira. According to the latest official toll, released on Monday by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, the quakes have left at least 4,561 dead, 16,740 injured and 17,907 people homeless, with 20,231 housed in 107 temporary camps. Reconstruction, whose cost has yet to be officially quantified, ranks among the government's main challenges.