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Source: THE AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS

Venezuela’s act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez an­nounced a ma­jor Cab­i­net shake-up Wednes­day with the ap­point­ment of a new de­fense min­is­ter to re­place Gen. Vladimir Padri­no López, who had been a cor­ner­stone of the mil­i­tary’s long-stand­ing sup­port for for­mer Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

Ro­dríguez an­nounced the tran­si­tion on her Telegram chan­nel, say­ing the ap­point­ment of Gen. Gus­ta­vo González López to the role was ef­fec­tive im­me­di­ate­ly. She al­so thanked Padri­no López for his “loy­al­ty to the Home­land” and ex­pressed con­fi­dence in his fu­ture roles.