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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Chavez's VP resigns amid protests at Venezuela TV closure |
| 2010-01-28 |
| Venezuelan Vice President and Defense Minister Ramon Carrizalez resigned Monday, citing personal reasons, as police and protesters clashed in several cities after a major opposition TV station was taken off the air. Carrizalez, a retired colonel, said in an e-mailed statement from the vice president's office that he was leaving for personal reasons and not because of any disagreement with government policies, according to Bloomberg. His resignation over alleged differences with President Hugo Chavez had been rumored since Saturday, AFP noted. Chavez accepted the resignation and thanked Carrizalez for his work, Information Minister Blanca Eckhout said in a brief statement.A replacement was not announced. The close Chavez confidant, who is a former army officer like the president, was seen as one of Chavez's more capable administrators. "The sudden resignation of the vice president after 10 years of working for Chavez may be related to the recent widespread electricity crisis, since Carrizalez was in charge of coordinating the plan to save electricity in Caracas. And the plan did not really work out," Xu Shideng, a researcher at the Institute of Latin America Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. State-backed news network Telesur reported that Carrizalez's wife, Environment Minister Yuviri Ortega, also resigned. |
| Posted by:Steve White |