Venezuela’s 

Leader Trades Old Guard for Slick
Technocrats to Keep Power
A new generation of cosmopolitan Venezuelan officials has allowed
President Nicolás Maduro to halt the economic collapse and remain in
power, at the cost of fostering potential future challenges to his rule.

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Rafael Lacava giving a speech to supporters during a campaign event in Valencia, Venezuela, in
2017. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

By Anatoly Kurmanaev
Anatoly Kurmanaev traveled to Venezuela in February to report on the country’s economic
transformation. He lived in Venezuela from 2013 to 2021, and chronicled the country’s collapse
under President Nicolás Maduro.
 Published March 2, 2022 Updated March 3, 2022

Leer en español

PUERTO CABELLO, Venezuela — His morning jogs draw fans seeking

selfies. His Dracula-themed social media stunts have attracted nearly a
million followers. And when he ran for re-election as governor of his state
in Venezuela in November, he won in a landslide.

The governor, Rafael Lacava, is a new breed of apparatchik in Venezuela’s

governing Socialist Party: younger, more cosmopolitan and more willing
to ditch ideology for practical measures that improve people’s lives.

Their approach has stabilized the economy and returned food to shelves
after a devastating depression, winning them popular support, or at least
grudging acceptance — and strengthening the grip on power of the man
they serve: the authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro.

“Maduro has reached his objective of power hegemony,” said Yvan Serra, a
political scientist at the University of Carabobo, in Venezuela. “Now, he is
trying to rebuild from the economic ruins.”

Puerto Cabello was once one of Venezuela’s largest commercial ports. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New
York Times
A beach in Puerto Cabello that was cleaned up with the help of Mr. Lacava. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The
New York Times

The rise of more pragmatic, market-oriented policymakers like Mr. Lacava

is in some ways surprising in a country that has become increasingly
repressive, impoverished and isolated from the West under Mr. Maduro.
He has crushed the opposition and internal dissent, leading millions to flee
and the United States to impose crippling economic sanctions to try to
topple his government.

The change in style represented by Mr. Lacava is born of the necessity to

survive these sanctions, rather than Mr. Maduro’s genuine belief in
political moderation and a market economy, said Luis Vicente León,
director of Venezuela’s largest polling company, Datanálisis.

The success of this newer cohort could help the Maduro government boost
its dismal ratings ahead of the 2024 presidential election, or at least make
his rule tolerable to a population increasingly resigned to the continuation
of the Socialist Party’s 23-year hold on power. A victory without outright
fraud by Mr. Maduro or his chosen candidate could return some legitimacy
to his pariah government, reducing the need for maintaining the sanctions,
political analysts say.

The younger politicians were elevated by Mr. Maduro, 59, after he

sidelined the septuagenarian comrades of his predecessor and mentor,
Hugo Chávez.

Among this generation, Mr. Lacava, 53, is a rising star. He won re-election
by ditching the party’s anti-imperialist slogans and its usual attacks on the
moneyed elites. Instead, he bet on his reputation for managerial
competence and support for free enterprise — and for building colorful
public works around his dilapidated state of Carabobo, decorated with life-
size statues of dinosaurs, fantasy creatures, sports legends and even
himself.
A bronze statue of governor Rafael Lacava, placed in a plaza that he remodeled. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for
The New York Times

Locals spending an afternoon in a park recently built by Mr. Lacava. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New
York Times

The crowds he attracts during his morning jogs are extraordinary in a

country where just 16 percent say they support the ruling party, and where
the president has largely stopped appearing in public after being booed,
pelted with a mango and targeted with several assassination plots.

Caribbean Sea

Puerto Cabello Caracas

Valencia

CARABOBO

Detail area

VENEZUELA
VENEZUELA
COLOMBIA

20 MILES BRAZIL
 By The New York Times

The younger politicians compete fiercely for Mr. Maduro’s attention and a
share of power. But together, they have been instrumental in transforming
the Venezuelan economy after American sanctions pushed the
government to the brink of collapse in early 2019.

Mr. Maduro needs these party members to succeed, but he is also wary of
allowing them to outshine him, said Mr. Serra.

Mr. Chávez’s chief lieutenants mostly came from humble provincial

backgrounds and studied primarily in Venezuela’s military academy. Mr.
Maduro is a former bus driver who rose through the ranks of a
transportation union. In contrast, most members of his economic and
political strategy team had a comfortable upbringing and a privileged
education.

Mr. Lacava comes from a wealthy business family; he once lived in

Manhattan and studied at Rutgers University, in New Jersey. The
economic czarina Delcy Rodríguez, 52, lived in France and the United
States and Hector Rodríguez, the 39-year-old governor of important
Miranda state, grew up in Sweden. The foreign minister, Félix Plasencia,
has a master’s degree from Oxford University, while central bank chief
Calixto Ortega, 38, has a degree from Rice University, in Houston.

Mr. Lacava represents a new breed in Venezuela’s Socialist Party: younger, more cosmopolitan and less tied
to ideology. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
The entrance to a surgical center in Carabobo displays a photograph of Mr. Lacava next to President Nicolás
Maduro. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

“I’m a Western guy,” Mr. Lacava said in an interview in late 2020, adding
that he wanted to go to Silicon Valley and meet with the chief executive of
Apple, Tim Cook, to talk about investing in Venezuela.

Like most of Mr. Maduro’s top officials, Mr. Lacava cannot make that trip.
He was sanctioned for corruption in 2019, an accusation he claims is
politically motivated.

“We have to rebuild that relationship,” he said at the time in fluent English,
referring to the United States. “We can discuss a lot of the things that
separate us, apart from one thing: the president of Venezuela is Nicolás
Maduro.”

In government receptions and on state television, the sharp designer suits

and trendy streetwear of this new generation have replaced the
paramilitary fatigues and the windbreakers in the colors of the Venezuelan
flag favored by Mr. Chávez’s loyalists. Sudden expropriations of companies
have been replaced by meetings with business leaders, and calls for
eternal revolution by slick social media campaigns aimed at the middle
class.

The old guard has been almost entirely pushed out from power.

Mr. Chávez’s brother, Argenis Chávez, suffered a humiliating defeat by the

opposition when running for governor in the late president’s home state of
Barinas. The few remaining governors who had been close to Mr. Chávez
did not even make it to the ballot.

The former vice president, Diosdado Cabello, once seen as Mr. Maduro’s
chief internal rival, has largely been reduced to spouting vitriol at the
regime’s enemies on his television program, “Hitting With a Mace.” His
companions from the military academy were retired by Mr. Maduro from
 senior posts in the armed forces in 2020, destroying Mr. Cabello’s last
major bastion of support.

After the sanctions were imposed, the economic team lead by Ms.
Rodríguez reversed Mr. Chávez’s economic staples: She ditched price and
currency controls, allowed the use of the U.S. dollar, and slashed
regulations on the private sector.

The economic liberalization has borne fruit, filling Venezuela’s once empty
shelves with goods and bringing a modest sense of well-being to about one
in two Venezuelans who have access to dollars. The economic
opportunities Mr. Maduro’s economic team has created have also enriched
some of them in the process, according to the U.S. government and the
opposition.

A bus stop marked with a bat, Mr. Lacava’s branding. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

Visitors walk around Draculandia, an amusement park built by Mr. Lacava. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The
New York Times
 The country’s economy grew for the first time in eight years in 2021,
according to the Venezuelan Finance Observatory, a nonprofit run by two
former opposition lawmakers, which forecast that the gross domestic
product will rise another 8 percent this year. Hyperinflation has subsided,
and oil production has modestly recovered as the government gave
private partners more control of the oil fields.

To be sure, Venezuela’s economy remains a shadow of what it was when

Mr. Maduro took power in 2013. It would need to grow 20 percent every
year for a decade just to regain the standard of living it offered in 2014,
said Ángel Alvarado of the Finance Observatory.

But the stabilization has returned a cautious optimism to the streets,

curbing protests and denting the opposition’s efforts to mobilize
supporters.

In the state of Carabobo, Mr. Lacava has reduced crime, repaired roads
and painted once abandoned public spaces in bright colors, usually adding
the bat logo representing Dracula, his alter ego. The state’s public services
and public venues bear names such as PoliDrácula, GasDrácula,
TransDrácula, DracuCafe, DracuFest and Drácula Plaza.

The new outdoor sports complex in his native city, Puerto Cabello, is
dominated by the giant statue of the late Argentine soccer player, Diego
Maradona, a friend of Mr. Maduro’s, and features replicas of famous
Venezuelan athletes. Among the statues are the figures of Mr. Lacava and
his son, a relatively unknown professional soccer player.

The outdoor sports complex in Puerto Cabello is dominated by a giant statue of the soccer star Diego
Maradona, who had been a friend of Mr. Maduro’s. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Dining in Plaza Dracula, a square that was remodeled by Mr. Lacava. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New
York Times

In contrast to the Chávez era, the public spaces decorated by Mr. Lacava
feature no government logos or the governing party’s colors.

The recovery seems superficial at times. Few visitors to Mr. Lacava’s

theme park and the sports complex can spend freely at food stalls and
attractions that are priced in dollars. The brightly painted facades in
Puerto Cabello’s colonial center hide the buildings’ crumbling interiors.

Still, after years of seemingly endless collapse, most residents welcome

the dogma-free optimism offered by Mr. Lacava. He trounced his opponent
by 30 percentage points in November. The opposition did not contest the
tally.

“For me, he is the best politician in the country,” said Kinan Masoud, a 35-
year-old Puerto Cabello businessman who helped build the sports
complex. “Do you know how long it has been since a child was glad to see
a politician in the street, and wanted to take a photo with him?”

Mr. Maduro acknowledged Mr. Lacava’s success by making a rare trip to

the provinces to attend his inauguration in December.

Yet, as the president has given his top ministers and governors more
leeway in economic policy, he has steadily monopolized power, preventing
anyone else from asserting national leadership and challenging his rule,
said Mr. León, the pollster.

“Maduro doesn’t care about the opposition,” he said. “What really gives
him nightmares is someone from the inside.”
In contrast to the Chávez era, the public spaces decorated by Mr. Lacava feature no government logos or the
Socialist Party’s trademark red color. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

Isayen Herrera and Mariana Martínez contributed reporting from Caracas.

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