RICO’s Q — Chaves takes center stage, while Fernández plays a supporting role at best. By naming Rodrigo Chaves as both Minister of the Presidency and Minister of Finance, President-elect Laura Fernández Delgado did two things:
- She secured Chaves’s immunity for the next four years
- She handed him the reins of her government’s economic and political power.
For the next four years, over 60 criminal cases against Chaves will remain unresolved. Serious offenses like embezzlement, extortion, and influence peddling tied to the “CABEI-Carinitos,” Tradeco, and Cisco cases, among others, will be swept under the rug for the next four years.
As Ministro de La Presidencia (Chief of Staff), Chaves outranks all other ministers politically. His role includes managing relations with other government branches and coordinating the work within the cabinet.
These two points back up what many have been saying all along: Laura Fernández is mostly a symbolic presence, a DECORATIVE figure, if you will, while the real political—and now economic—power has always been, and will remain, with Rodrigo Chaves.
Just so you know, the Minister of Finance is the one who shapes fiscal policy and plays a big role in guiding the government’s economic decisions.
For anyone who thought Laura represented a different style of leadership, I hope they will realize their mistake. With Rodrigo Chaves holding the two most crucial ministerial positions, don’t expect much to shift over the next four years.
A few weeks back, economist, retired independent researcher, Luis Paulino Vargas, posed a question that sticks with me: Why does Laura Fernández let Rodrigo Chaves cast such a dark shadow over her? No woman should ever have to live in the shadow of a man. And honestly, no woman needs to dim her light just to chase her dreams.
Vargas, in his article and social media, is even more direct in asking: Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that Chávez systematically tries to belittle Fernández, as if to say, ‘I’m still the king, and you’ll always be my subordinate, for the rest of your life?”
That’s bad enough on its own. But what’s even worse is that Fernández is letting it happen. The problem started right after the elections in February, when Chávez offered Fernández her old job before she stepped down to run for president—and she agreed.
“No newly elected president would ever have accepted such humiliation,” writes Vargas.
From a clinical perspective, Chaves exhibits sociopathic behavior, with a need for dominance and control. Fernández turned out to be the ideal victim with a self-leadership problem, which even provoked imitative behavior in her.
She’s insignificant to Chávez and the Chavistas.
Naming Chaves as Minister of the Presidency signals the downfall of Fernández’s administration. It’s essentially Fernández throwing in the towel—a president diminished to a mere figurehead, lost in the shadows. A second-rate, subservient figure.
If Chaves wants to fast-track a constitutional reform that would let him succeed Laura in four years, he’ll have to overcome resistance in the Legislative Assembly, where he still needs to secure a few more votes to make it happen.
Enrico (RICO) Cacciatore
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