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Delcy Rodríguez appointed Dr. Carlos Alvarado as the new Minister of Popular Power for Health of Venezuela this Friday, in the latest move of the cabinet restructuring that the interim president has undertaken since taking office in January.
The announcement was made by Rodríguez through his account on X, where he emphasized that Alvarado is a doctor graduated from the Universidad Central de Venezuela and that he had previously held the same position between 2018 and 2022, during Nicolás Maduro's administration.
"Dr. Carlos Alvarado appointed as the new Minister of Health. A graduate physician from UCV who has previously led this portfolio, playing a crucial role in the care and protection of the Venezuelan people, especially on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle," Rodríguez wrote.
Alvarado replaces Nuramy Gutiérrez, who had been appointed Minister of Health on January 19, 2026 by Rodríguez herself and who now takes on the rectorship of the Hugo Chávez Frías University of Health Sciences.
Since January 31, 2026, Alvarado has been presiding over the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security, a position from which he now makes the leap to the ministry he is already familiar with.
During his first term managing the health portfolio, Alvarado faced a deep crisis characterized by a shortage of medications and deteriorating hospital infrastructure.
In May 2019, he publicly acknowledged that the lack of access to medications affects the entire Venezuelan population, particularly those with fewer resources.
He also coordinated the COVID-19 vaccination with Sputnik V, Sinopharm, and the Cuban vaccine Abdala, and managed the arrival of Cuban doctors to the country.
The appointment occurs on the same day that Rodríguez enacted the new Organic Mining Law, which repeals the chavista regulations of 1999 and opens the mining sector to private and foreign investments.
By signing the law, which was unanimously approved by the National Assembly on April 9, Rodríguez publicly thanked Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their "good disposition" in the bilateral dialogue.
This new ministerial change is part of a systematic pattern of movements that Rodríguez has carried out since assuming the interim presidency on January 5, 2026, following Maduro's capture by U.S. forces two days earlier.
Among the most significant events: on January 21, 28 changes were ordered in the leadership of the Bolivarian National Armed Force; on February 2, the Cuban Leticia Gómez was removed from her position as Minister of Tourism and Daniella Cabello, daughter of Diosdado Cabello, was appointed as her successor.
On March 18, he removed General Vladimir Padrino López from the Ministry of Defense after 11 years in the position, reassigning him as Minister of Productive Agriculture and Lands last Tuesday.
The pragmatic shift of Rodríguez has also resonated in Washington: on April 1, the United States lifted the sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control that had been imposed on her since September 2018, in a gesture of bilateral normalization that accompanies the diplomatic rapprochement between both governments.
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