Related videos:
Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez dismissed Leticia Gómez, the Cuban who had been serving as Minister of Tourism in Venezuela and appointed Daniella Cabello, the daughter of Diosdado Cabello, in her stead.
"I have decided to appoint the young Daniella Cabello as the new Minister of Popular Power for Tourism, who will now take on the responsibility of fostering the development and promotion of the National Tourist System. My gratitude goes to my colleague Leticia Gómez for her valuable work at the helm of this important portfolio. Venezuela, open to the world," announced Rodríguez on Facebook.
Leticia Gómez, the protégé of Manuel Marrero in Venezuela
Leticia Gómez is not an improvised figure. She arrived in Venezuela in 2001 "hand in hand" with Manuel Marrero Cruz, the Cuban Prime Minister, who was then a key figure in the hotel group Gaviota S.A., owned by the military conglomerate GAESA, the economic heart of the Cuban regime.
Under the guidance of Marrero Cruz, Gómez rose from managing expropriated hotels to the presidency of the state-run Venetur, and later to the Ministry of Tourism, under the government of Nicolás Maduro.
His career reflects the exportation of the Cuban model of economic and political control: disciplined technocrats in the service of the military state, with tourism as a means to generate foreign currency and maintain the power structure.
The method is unmistakable. In Cuba, Marrero Cruz has turned tourism into his political lifeline, even during the worst moments of the national crisis. While the country suffers from blackouts, inflation, and unprecedented migration, the Prime Minister insists that “Cuba needs foreign currency and will continue to bet on tourism.”
His dismissal could be interpreted as a gesture of distancing from chavismo by the Cuban regime.
Daniella Cabello, the chavismo influencer
Daniella Cabello, the daughter of Diosdado, has already been among the 21 figures of Chavismo sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) following the 2024 electoral fraud.
With an unfulfilled career as a singer and an incomplete university education in Political Science, Diosdado's daughter was appointed in March 2023 as the president of the Marca País Foundation, responsible for promoting tourism to Venezuela.
In September of that same year, he took over the Venezuelan Export Promotion Agency.
It is also part of the Venezuela Joven Mission, key in indoctrinating the youth towards chavismo.
The 33-year-old young woman is married to producer and singer Omar Acedo, and due to her life of luxury and her social media presence, she has become a symbol of the nepotistic excesses of chavismo.
Filed under: