On 13 August President Nicolás Maduro unexpectedly changed the president of the central bank (BCV), appointing Eudomar Tovar to replace Edmeé Betancourt, less than four months after she was appointed. On paper Tovar looks better qualified, and there are signs that the Maduro finance team is trying to implement a more pragmatic economic policy; the trouble is that it will take a while to untangle the knotty situation they inherited from the late president Hugo Chávez. Tovar, an economist and former BCV board member, moves over from the main currency exchange board, Comisión de Administración de Divisas (Cadivi). He is…

President Nicolás Maduro has called a national emergency in Venezuela to combat corruption “at its roots”, for which he is seeking special powers. Maduro has not clarified exactly what these special powers might be but in order to begin a decidedly vague “process to reform laws and change institutions” he must mean the enabling law which his predecessor and mentor, the late president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) habitually pushed through a pliant national assembly in order to gain stretches of 18 months in which to rule by decree on the pretext of responding to a specific crisis. “If it’s necessary to…