Jorge Rodríguez Gómez - Venezuela
Who is Jorge Rodríguez Gómez?
He is the new vice-president of Venezuela, sworn in on 8 January.
Why watch him?
Rodríguez replaces José Vicente Rangel, one of President Hugo Chávez 's closest political allies and one of the few moderating influences on the president who is certainly in office until 2012 and may well stand for re-election for another term.
Born: 9 November 1965
Place of Birth: Unknown
Educated: Studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Venezuela before training and qualifying as a psychiatrist.
Public Life: Rodríguez made his name first as president of the Junta Nacional Electoral (JNE), which managed the re-call referendum on President Hugo Chávez in 2004 and then as president of the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), to which the Junta answers, from January 2005 to April 2006. During this period congressional elections were held, but the opposition refused to participate. This meant that all the seats in congress were won by pro-Chávez parties.
Timeline:
25 July 1976: Rodríguez's father, a leftwing leader, Jorge Rodríguez, is disappeared. He is presumed to have been tortured to death by the secret police, Disip. Rodríguez senior founded the Liga Socialista, which is generally reckoned to have been Trotskyite. Fellow inmates and his family say he was killed for refusing to admit that he was involved in revolutionary activities.
1983: Voted for José Vicente Rangel in the presidential election
1987: President of the students' centre at Escuela de Medicina Luis Razetti
1988: President of the Federación de Centros Universitarios.
1995: Resident doctor at the Instituto Venezolano de los Seguros Sociales; then he did a postgraduate degree in clinical psychology at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.
Late 1990s & early 2000s: In private practice. Rodriguez also writes some celebrated short stories and joins the Movimiento Quinto República (MVR).
2003: President of the JNE.
2005: President of the CNE.
Strengths
He is clever, tough and honest. He will lead the government's anti-corruption and efficiency drive, President Chávez said. As Rodríguez has never held office before he is seen as an outsider. He is clearly trusted by Chávez and the two men share prejudices. His father was killed while Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP) was president. CAP was the target of Chávez 's attempted coup in February 1992. The man Rodríguez replaces, José Vicente Rangel, has been prominent in the annual ceremony commemorating the death of Rodríguez's father in 1976 and the two men are close. Rangel, despite having no formal position, is likely to remain influential.
Weaknesses
Rodríguez has been heavily criticised by the opposition press both at the JNE and the CNE. He has weathered accusations that he had wasted US$130m of public money on electronic voting systems. His family is highly political: his sister, Delsy, has been a deputy foreign minister. Rodríguez is unlikely to act as any sort of brake on Chávez 's wilder ideas to transform Venezuelan society.
Prospects
So long as the price of oil stays high Chávez and his followers will be able to do almost whatever they like. On 8 January Chávez swore in his new ministerial team and promised to scrap central bank autonomy; nationalise CANTV (a telecoms company) and the electricity industry; change business laws; cancel the broadcasting licence of Venezuela's largest private TV network RCTV and increase the state's share of the public-private joint ventures in the upgrading of heavy crude in the Orinoco tar belt. On the subject of CANTV, Rodríguez argued that the government has a mandate to close the channel since it announced that its intention to do so before the 3 December presidential election.