International
Venezuela’s Maduro replaces oil company chief

January 6th | By AFP |
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday replaced a cousin of his predecessor Hugo Chavez as head of state oil company PDVSA with engineer and military officer Pedro Rafael Tellechea.
The change comes as Venezuela, once an oil-exporting giant, seeks to regain some of its former glory and play a bigger role in a market rattled by the war in Ukraine.
Tellechea, head of the Pequiven petrochemical company, “will consolidate the momentum of the national oil industry,” Maduro wrote on Twitter.
Outgoing PDVSA head Asdrubal Chavez, at the helm since April 2020, “will soon have new responsibilities,” he added.
Venezuela was once one of the world’s largest oil producers, with output of more than three million barrels per day in 2008.
Production plummeted over time to about 300,000 barrels per day due to a combination of poor management and lacking investment, but has recently risen again to about 700,000 barrels per day.
Maduro blames US sanctions for the decline, but most experts say it predates the punitive measures against a president whose 2018 reelection was dismissed as fraudulent by dozens of countries.
Washington insisted this week it still did not consider Maduro to be Venezuela’s legitimate president.
But in March last year, shortly after the start of the Ukraine war, the Biden administration sent a delegation to meet Maduro and in November gave the green light for US oil giant Chevron to resume operations in Venezuela.
Tellechea had led a successful offensive of the Maduro government to reclaim control in Colombia of petrochemical company Monomeros, a subsidiary of Pequiven.
Colombia’s former president Ivan Duque had entrusted control of Monomeros to Juan Guaido, who the US and dozens of other countries had viewed as Venezuela’s legitimate president.
Maduro clung on to power and ties between the neighbors, suspended under Duque, have been reset under Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president.
Maduro also announced that Yvan Gil Pinto, deputy foreign minister for Europe, would take over as foreign minister from Carlos Faria, in the post since May 2022.
International
Paraguay summons Brazilian ambassador over Itaipú espionage scandal

Paraguay summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Asunción on Tuesday to demand “explanations” and called its own representative in Brasília for consultations following Brazil’s acknowledgment of an espionage operation. The Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, attributed the operation to the previous administration.
The surveillance effort aimed to uncover Paraguay’s position in now-suspended negotiations with Brazil regarding the pricing of electricity from the binational Itaipú hydroelectric plant, according to reports in the Brazilian press.
The Brazilian government “categorically denied any involvement in the intelligence operation,” stating in a Foreign Ministry communiqué on Monday that the espionage was carried out under former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration (2019-2023).
“The operation was authorized by the previous government in June 2022 and was annulled by the interim director of the (state intelligence agency) ABIN on March 27, 2023, as soon as the current administration became aware of it,” Brazil’s government asserted.
Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez announced that Brazilian Ambassador José Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho was summoned “to provide detailed explanations” regarding the operation. Additionally, Paraguay recalled its diplomatic representative in Brasília “to report on aspects related to the intelligence activity conducted by Brazil regarding Paraguay’s government affairs.”
International
Elon Musk to step down as government advisor, per Trump insiders

President Donald Trump has informed his inner circle that Elon Musk will be stepping down from his role as a government advisor, according to a report by Politico today.
Citing three individuals close to Trump, Politico states that the president is pleased with Musk’s leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has implemented significant budget cuts. However, both have agreed that it is time for Musk to return to his businesses and support Trump from a different position outside the government.
A senior administration official told Politico that Musk will likely maintain an informal advisory role and continue to be an occasional visitor to the White House. Another source warned that anyone thinking Musk will completely disappear from Trump’s circle is “deluding themselves.”
According to the sources, this transition is expected to coincide with the end of Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee,” a temporary status that exempts him from certain ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations. This 130-day period is set to expire in late May or early June.
International
Milei vows to make Argentina so strong that Falkland Islanders “choose” to join

Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed his country’s claim over the Falkland Islands (known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina) and praised the role of the nation’s armed forces during a ceremony marking the “Veterans and Fallen Soldiers of the Malvinas War Day,” commemorating 43 years since the 1982 conflict with the United Kingdom.
Argentina continues to assert sovereignty over the islands, arguing that Britain unlawfully seized them in 1833.
“If sovereignty over the Malvinas is the issue, we have always made it clear that the most important vote is the one cast with one’s feet. We hope that one day, the Malvinas residents will choose to vote with their feet and join us,” Milei stated.
“That is why we aim to become a global power—so much so that they would prefer to be Argentine, making deterrence or persuasion unnecessary. This is why we have embarked on a path of liberation, working to make Argentina the freest country in the world and once again the nation with the highest GDP per capita on the planet,” he added.
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