Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez has appointed General-in-Chief Gustavo González López as minister of defence, removing Vladimir Padrino López from the post he had held for over a decade in the most significant cabinet reshuffle since Nicolás Maduro was seized by US forces in January.

Rodríguez announced the change in an X post on March 18, saying she had designated González López to head the ministry of popular defence. She said Padrino López would take on "new responsibilities", thanking him for his "loyalty to the Fatherland" and describing him as "the first soldier in the defence of our country" during his years in the role.

Padrino López, a four-star general who graduated from Venezuela's Military Academy, had served as defence minister since October 2014, surviving multiple political crises including the 2019 coup attempt and the US military operation on January 3 that led to Maduro's arrest. Washington sanctioned Padrino in September 2018 for his role in consolidating Maduro's grip on power, and Canada followed suit in September 2017. The US Department of Justice indicted him in 2020 on drug trafficking charges and placed a $15mn bounty on his head.

After Maduro's capture, Padrino had struck a defiant tone, saying in a video message dressed in fatigues: "They have attacked us but will not break us." He subsequently backed the Supreme Tribunal of Justice's appointment of Rodríguez as acting president.

González López brings a long record in Venezuela's intelligence and security apparatus to the defence brief. A 1982 Military Academy graduate, he served as director of the feared Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) on two separate occasions and was appointed interior minister by Maduro in March 2015. The United States sanctioned him for his alleged role in the violent suppression of the 2014 protests, which left at least 43 dead, and the Obama administration cited his involvement in human rights abuses, arbitrary arrests and public corruption. The European Union also sanctioned him in January 2018, freezing his assets and barring him from entering EU territory, citing his responsibility for the deterioration of democracy in Venezuela.

Human rights researchers have also linked González López to the Liberation of the People operation, a years-long security campaign that resulted in the deaths of hundreds — and possibly thousands — of people, predominantly in poor urban neighbourhoods.

The appointment consolidates González López's rapid ascent since Maduro's removal. Shortly after Rodríguez assumed the acting presidency, she named him commander of the Presidential Honor Guard and head of military counterintelligence, posts analysts said were intended to shore up her position against potential rivals within the security establishment.

Rodríguez's interim presidency has been characterised by a sharp break from the hardline anti-American posture of the Chávez and Maduro years, driven by her track record of engagement with private enterprise across multiple economic sectors. After President Donald Trump publicly praised her as a "terrific person" who is "doing a great job," Washington formally recognised Rodriguez as Venezuela's sole head of state on March 12, and raised its flag at the US Embassy in Caracas for the first time in seven years two days later.