Rodriguez replaces the longest-serving Defense Minister of Chavismo: the silent purge reorganizing Venezuelan military power
General Vladimir Padrino, 11 years at the helm of the Ministry of Defense and pillar of Maduro's power apparatus, is replaced by Gustavo González López — head of the presidential guard and Rodriguez's military counterintelligence. This is not a transition: it is consolidation.
Padrino was the last pillar of power from Maduro's original circle remaining in an operational post. Following Maduro's capture on January 3rd, Padrino appeared on television promising "guerrilla resistance"—and then quietly cooperated with every Washington demand. His usefulness as an interlocutor with the military old guard had run its course.
González López is neither a reformist nor a democrat. He is the chief of the presidential guard—the man who controls who enters and exits Miraflores—and simultaneously ran military counterintelligence. Rodríguez is not democratizing the military; she is ensuring the military answers to her, not to Maduro's ghosts.
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