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Andean Group - March 2012 (ISSN 1741-4466)

‘Beware the ides of March’

On 13 March the ruling Partido Unido Socialista de Venezuela (PSUV) suspended from the party the governor of the eastern oil-producing state of Monagas, José ‘El Gato’ Gregorio Briceño, for “indiscipline”. Briceño, governor since 2004, blamed his removal on the president of the national assembly (and PSUV first vice-president), Diosdado Cabello, accusing Cabello of manoeuvering against him in the absence of President Hugo Chávez, who was in Cuba recovering from additional cancer treatment. In an interview with the opposition TV channel Globovisión, Briceño said that Cabello had unleashed “a pack of hounds” on him. “I ask God that Chávez recovers from his illness; he needs to come here and restore order and clean up the house. He needs to protect me from an ambush”, Briceño warned. Chávez declined, accusing Briceño of being a traitor and saying that he would soon be “cosmic dust” on the face of Venezuelan politics.

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