Socialist “Interim President” of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez on Wednesday replaced Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López — a longtime top figure in the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Rodríguez replaced Padrino López with Venezuelan Army General Gustavo González López — a U.S.-sanctioned man linked to Rodríguez and involved in human rights violations and corruption.
“We thank General Vladimir Padrino López for his loyalty to the nation and for having been, throughout all these years, the foremost defender of our country,” Rodríguez wrote on social media. “We are confident that he will assume the new responsibilities entrusted to him with the same commitment and honor.”
Padrino López, a man actively wanted by U.S. authorities on drug trafficking charges, served as defense minister for nearly 12 years after Nicolás Maduro appointed him to the position in July 2014. He has been described as a hardline Maduro loyalist who played a large hand in upholding the socialist regime’s so-called “anti-imperialist” anti-U.S. doctrine across the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
Maduro had ratified him as defense minister in October 2024 after the now-deposed dictator held a sham election in July 2024 — followed by an intense period of brutal repression against dissidents — seeking to illegitimately secure a new six-year presidential term for himself.
U.S. authorities accuse Padrino López of being one of the leading figures of the Cartel of the Suns, a U.S.-identified Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) that, for years, has sought to “flood” the U.S. with cocaine to harm its people. U.S. law enforcement intelligence reports indicate that the former defense minister has a long history of involvement in illegal drug trafficking and of allowing safe passage of commercial flights carrying illegal drugs.
A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted and charged Padrino López in 2019 with conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine onboard an aircraft registered in the United States. Presently, the United States has an active $15 million bounty on information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested by U.S. forces on January 3 after President Donald Trump authorized a law enforcement operation in Caracas to detain the socialist dictator, long wanted by U.S. authorizes on multiple narco-terrorism charges. Padrino López was among the regime officials that accused the United States of “kidnapping” Maduro. Weeks later, he and other military and police top brass members swore “absolute loyalty” to Delcy Rodríguez — who has been collaborating with the United States and has publicly described President Trump as a “friend.”
General Gustavo González López, the new Venezuelan defense minister, is a man subject to both United States and European Union sanctions for his role in corruption and in the violation of human rights committed against Venezuelans. Prior to his new ministerial position, Rodríguez appointed González López as the head of the presidential guard and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) in January. Rear Admiral Germán Gómez Lárez replaced him as head of the DGCIM, one of the Venezuelan regime’s most brutally repressive institutions.
The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported that González López twice served director general of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) — another infamous branch of the regime’s repressive apparatus — between 2014-2018 and 2019-2024.
The United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reportedly said in 2020 that it had found “reasonable grounds to believe” that González López “had knowledge of, participated in, and contributed to the commission of serious violations and crimes committed by Sebin against regime-targeted political dissidents from 2014 onwards, such as arbitrary detentions and torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, including acts of sexual violence.”
An unnamed source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that Gonzalez Lopez’s promotion to defense minister will not mark a major change in Rodriguez’s collaboration with the United States, which includes oil, mining, and the release of political prisoners.
“I see it as a situation in which the entire relationship with the Americans is concentrated in a few people, and they are the ones they trust the most,” the source reportedly said. “I think it is simply about appointing someone who will deal with the United States.”
Padrino López’s removal from the Defense Ministry is the latest major change in a shakeup of the Venezuelan executive carried out by Delcy Rodríguez, replacing seven Maduro-era ministers in addition to replacing several top executive positions — among which is Tarek William Saab, a brutally repressive prosecutor close to Cilia Flores who was demoted from his position as attorney general in late February. Rodríguez appointed Saab as the new head of the “Great Mission: Viva Venezuela,” a Venezuelan cultural-affairs office of lesser importance established by Maduro in 2024.
According to the Venezuelan outlet Monitoreamos, Delcy Rodríguez has replaced 40 percent of the Maduro-era ministers in less than three months. Since January 12, Rodríguez has replaced 13 of Venezuela’s over 30 ministerial cabinet.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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