{"id":438,"date":"2017-01-06T17:37:56","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=438"},"modified":"2017-01-06T17:37:56","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:37:56","slug":"venezuelas-maduro-names-new-potential-successor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2017\/01\/06\/venezuelas-maduro-names-new-potential-successor\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela’s Maduro names new potential successor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro named an ex-security minister Wednesday as his vice-president, who would become head of state if Maduro were removed from office this year as the opposition demands.<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Maduro <\/a>told a televised cabinet meeting that he had named to the post Tareck El Aissami, 42, a powerful state governor who cracked down on drug gangs in his time as a minister.<\/p>\n

Currently governor of the violent northern state of Aragua, El Aissami served as junior security minister and later interior and justice minister under Maduro’s late predecessor Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n

“I have appointed Tareck El Aissami executive vice-president of the republic so that he can take up the role from 2017 to 2018 with his youth, experience, commitment and courage,” Maduro said.<\/p>\n

Food crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The center-right opposition <\/a>has been demanding a popular vote on removing Maduro from office.<\/p>\n

It blames him for an economic crisis that has prompted shortages of food<\/a> and medicine and deadly riots.<\/p>\n

The opposition has missed the deadline for sparking fresh elections by a referendum before Maduro’s term ends in 2019, however.<\/p>\n

Under constitutional rules, if Maduro lost a referendum held after January 10 this year, he could pass power to his handpicked vice-president.<\/p>\n

El Aissami replaces Aristobulo Isturiz, 70, who has been Maduro’s vice-president since January 2016.<\/p>\n

Opposition maneuvers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The MUD opposition coalition is scheduled to announce its latest plans when its lawmakers gather in the legislature on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It has not said whether it will resume its fraught drive for a referendum against Maduro.<\/p>\n

Courts and electoral authorities in October blocked the opposition’s bid to hold a recall referendum.<\/p>\n

The MUD alleges that Maduro controls the Supreme Court and electoral board through his allies.<\/p>\n

Maduro also has the public backing of the military high command.<\/p>\n

Maduro vows ‘recovery’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Falling world prices for Venezuela’s crucial oil revenues have aggravated its economic chaos since 2014.<\/p>\n

Maduro says the crisis is the result of a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Some opposition leaders sat down in late 2016 to talks with Maduro’s government.<\/p>\n

Others branded the dialogue a ploy to defuse protests against the government and its “Bolivarian revolution” launched by Chavez.<\/p>\n

The opposition walked out of the talks last month, accusing the government of breaking its promises.<\/p>\n

Maduro has refused to allow any vote on his leadership and stuck to his defiant line on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He said “2017 will be the first year of the recovery and the expansion of the Bolivarian revolution on all fronts.”<\/p>\n

Security<\/strong><\/p>\n

El Aissami, of Syrian and Lebanese ancestry, is a senior member of Maduro’s United Venezuelan Socialist Party.<\/p>\n

In 2012 he became governor of Aragua, considered the most dangerous state in a South American country plagued by violence.<\/p>\n

“I told him, Tareck, get to work day and night working for the security of the people,” Maduro said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He called on the new vice-president to wage a “fight against criminals, the fight to clean up the regional police forces, the fight against far-right terrorists.”<\/p>\n

NEWS WIRES<\/p>\n

France24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro named an ex-security minister Wednesday as his vice-president, who would become head of state if Maduro were removed from office this year as the opposition demands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}