Chavez Sacks General Who Headed Oil Firm
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez replaced a moderate army general as head of the state oil monopoly the day after two military officers led anti-government protests in the nation.
Presidential Chief of Staff Rafael Vargas said in Caracas, the capital, that Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda would be replaced at the helm of South America’s largest oil company by economist Gaston Parra, the vice president of the central bank and a staunch Chavez ally.
Lameda’s departure comes amid increasingly widespread opposition to Chavez’s leftist administration.
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