Venezuela president names new potential successor

CARACAS: Venezuela´s leader Nicolas Maduro named an ex-security minister on Wednesday as his vice-president, who would become head of state if Maduro were removed from office this year as the opposition demands.

Maduro 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.

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.

“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.

The center-right opposition has been demanding a popular vote on removing Maduro from office.

It blames him for an economic crisis that has prompted shortages of food and medicine and deadly riots. The opposition has missed the deadline for sparking fresh elections by a referendum before Maduro´s term ends in 2019, however.

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

El Aissami replaces Aristobulo Isturiz, 70, who has been Maduro´s vice-president since January 2016.

The MUD opposition coalition is scheduled to announce its latest plans when its lawmakers gather in the legislature on Thursday.

It has not said whether it will resume its fraught drive for a referendum against Maduro.

Courts and electoral authorities in October blocked the opposition´s bid to hold a recall referendum. The MUD alleges that Maduro controls the Supreme Court and electoral board through his allies. Maduro also has the public backing of the military high command.

Falling world prices for Venezuela´s crucial oil revenues have aggravated its economic chaos since 2014.