Weekly Report - 20 June 2019 (WR-19-24)

VENEZUELA | New electricity minister appointed. President Nicolás Maduro has appointed Freddy Brito Maestre, an electrical engineer, as electricity minister and president of Venezuela’s state energy company (Corpoelec). Brito takes over from Igor Gavidia, who had only been appointed two months earlier following a series of severe power cuts affecting at least 11 of the country’s 23 states. Maduro offered no explanation for the decision to replace Gavidia. Brito faces the challenge of continued electricity shortages, and protests against them, as well as overseeing energy rationing. Brito was made science and technology minister on 1 April, a post now filled by Gabriel Servilia Jiménez Ramírez.