Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CARACAS25
2007-01-04 21:33:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Caracas
Cable title:  

CHAVEZ NAMES JORGE RODRIGUEZ VP AND PEDRO CARRENO

Tags:  PGOV PREL VE 
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DE RUEHCV #0025/01 0042133
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 042133Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7420
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 000025 

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HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPARTMENT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/04/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL VE
SUBJECT: CHAVEZ NAMES JORGE RODRIGUEZ VP AND PEDRO CARRENO
AS INTERIOR AND JUSTICE MINISTER


CARACAS 00000025 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES,
REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 000025

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HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPARTMENT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/04/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL VE
SUBJECT: CHAVEZ NAMES JORGE RODRIGUEZ VP AND PEDRO CARRENO
AS INTERIOR AND JUSTICE MINISTER


CARACAS 00000025 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES,
REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) Summary. President Hugo Chavez named former National
Electoral Council (CNE) President Jorge Rodriguez to replace
Jose Vicente Rangel as Vice President and Fifth Republic
Movement (MVR) National Assembly deputy Pedro Carreno to
replace Jessie Chacon as Interior and Justice Minister on
January 3. Both Rodriguez and Carreno are Chavez loyalists
and strident, hard-line leaders within the MVR. Chavez also
said he would keep Rafael Ramirez on as his Energy and
Petroleum Minister and suggested Chacon would be tapped for
another, as yet unspecified, ministry. Rene Arreaza, Chief
of Staff in the VP's office and one of the Embassy's most
useful government contacts, is not likely to stay on. Chavez
is expected to name a number of other new ministers in the
run-up to his January 10 inauguration. End Summary.

--------------
Jorge Rodriguez - New VP
--------------


2. (SBU) President Chavez called a live pro-government talk
show January 3 to announce the first of a series of cabinet
changes that he plans to make in the run-up to his January 10
inauguration. Chavez tapped Jorge Rodriguez, the Minister of
the Secretariat of the Presidency and former President of the
National Electoral Council (CNE),to replace Jose Vicente
Rangel as Vice President. Chavez cited unspecified
"circumstances" that "obligated" him to make the change.
Chavez also praised Rangel as a "star pitcher" and said he
respects the outgoing VP like a "son does his father." He
did not announce whether Rangel will be named to any other
government position.


3. (C) Rangel's ouster from the cabinet was not unexpected.
Rene Arreaza, Rangel's Chief of Staff, told the Ambassador
December 15 that Chavez' entire cabinet had submitted their
resignations after the Chavez' re-election on December 3 and
that Chavez planned to accept Rangel's resignation. Arreaza
has been one of the embassy's most approachable and useful
BRV interlocutors, but he is not likely to stay on as Chief

of Staff after Rangel's departure. Chavez may have publicly
signaled the first post-re-election cabinet change when he
blasted Rangel and Interior and Justice Minister Jessie
Chacon at a televised December 17 ceremony after event
organizers did not play the Panamanian national anthem on cue.


4. (C) Incoming VP Jorge Rodriguez is infamous for his
staunchly pro-government bias during his tenure on the CNE
from August 23, 2003 to February 2006, including as CNE
President his last year there. International election
observers highlighted the lack of public confidence in the
CNE after the December 2005 parliamentary elections and
recommended its "renewal." The National Assembly
subsequently elected a new CNE board, although the CNE is
still stacked 4-1 against the opposition. Rodriguez has had
a considerably lower profile since being named to the new
post of Minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency in
February 24, 2006. He has close ties to outgoing VP Rangel,
according to a number of embassy contacts.


5. (SBU) Rodriguez is a psychiatrist. Prior to entering
government, he was a professor of psychiatry post-graduate
studies at Caracas University Hospital in the Venezuelan
Central University and at the Community Psychiatric Hospital
in the Andres Bello Catholic University. He, along with
Caracas Municipal Mayor Juan Barreto and Anzoategui Governor
Tarek William Saab, is a former member and leader of the
"Movimentio 80," a student political group that pressed for
democratization at the Venezuelan Central University. An
avid reader, Rodriguez used to write a literary column in the
Caracas daily "Tal Cual." Rodriguez' father was the head of
the Socialist League before his assassination in the 1970's
(allegedly by police personnel). The 41-year old Chavez
loyalist is married and has three children.

-------------- --------------
Pedro Carreno - New Interior and Justice Minister
-------------- --------------


6. (C) Chavez also announced January 3 that National Assembly
deputy Pedro Carreno will replace Jessie Chacon as Minister
of Interior and Justice. Carreno is a former Army Captain
who was cashiered from the armed forces in 1994 for his
participation in Chavez' failed 1992 coup. He is a Fifth

CARACAS 00000025 002.2 OF 002


Republic Movement (MVR) deputy from Chavez' native state of
Barinas and vied unsuccessfully for the National Assembly
Presidency in January 2006. Chavez instead named him head of
the National Assembly Commission that overseas government
spending. He was Second Vice President of the National
Assembly from 2004 to 2006.


7. (C) Carreno has been both a leader of the hard-line
Chavista wing of the MVR and a loose cannon in the
legislature. In January 2002, Carreno demanded an
investigation into an alleged U.S. government plot to
overthrow the Chavez government based on documents that were
immediately exposed as a crude forgery. He also accused
DirecTV, a satellite dish cable company, of espionage. Prior
to being elected to the National Assembly in 2000, Carreno
was the Director General for Presidential Relations at the
Miraflores Presidential Palace from 1998 to 2000. He worked
as an assistant to Chavez during the 1998 presidential
campaign.


8. (SBU) Carreno graduated from the Military Academy in 1985.
He subsequently studied history at the Venezuelan Central
University and Andres Bello Catholic University, as well as
marketing at Florida International University. He has
traveled widely in Latin America and Europe as a National
Assembly deputy. Carreno was born April 24, 1961 in the
western state of Apure.


9. (SBU) Chavez did not cite any specific reasons for
replacing outgoing Interior and Justice Minister Chacon, but
did make reference to general security problems, including a
recent prison riot (septel). Chavez suggested that he would
appoint Chacon to another ministry, but did not specify which
one. The replacement of Chacon is not a surprise either, as
he was widely considered to be vulnerable given Venezuela's
significant crime problems. Chavez not only registered his
displeasure with Chacon at the December 17 ceremony
commemorating the anniversary of Simon Bolivar's death, but
also admonished him during one of his weekly "Alo Presidente"
television programs in August 2006.

--------------
Comment
--------------


10. (C) Chavez' first post-re-election appointments suggest
that he intends to construct a cabinet that is "red, really
red" (as coined by the staying on Energy Minister Rafael
Ramirez) and unquestionably loyal to the president. Rangel
served Chavez faithfully as Foreign Minister, Defense
Minister, and Vice President, but he also had his own
political stature that predated the rise of Chavez.
Rodriguez and Carreno owe all their political stature to
Chavez, and they are much more likely to echo and amplify
Chavez' policies than they are to try to temper or shape
Chavez' own ideas. Moreover, both are as -- if not more --
ideologically in sync with Chavez' anti-Americanism as their
predecessors.

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