Venezuela's former head of state-owned PdV and oil minister Pedro Tellechea resigned from his recent post as industries minister, with former US prisoner Alex Saab taking his place.
Tellechea stepped down from his two roles in late August to be replaced by Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle after a contested 28 July presidential election.
He announced his departure today on X, formerly Twitter, a social media platform recently banned in Venezuela but accessible through virtual private networks. He attribute his leaving to health problems.
Saab, appointed almost immediately after Tellechea said he was leaving, is a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman freed last year by the US administration in a prisoner swap. He spent three years in US and African jails awaiting trial on money-laundering charges.
Several of Tellechea's colleagues in top military and law enforcement posts were sacked by Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro this week also, including the head of the presidential security detail Ivan Hernandez, sources told Argus.
Tellechea is a former colonel in the Venezuelan army and an engineer. He took over at PdV in January 2023, in the wake of an investigation into an alleged $23bn in missing cryptocurrency funds, and became energy minister two months later. His predecessor in that role, Tareck El Aissami, was jailed in the cryptocurrency case.
