Che’s Battle Comrade Becomes Maduro’s New Economic Adviser
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro announced a new economic adviser for his cabinet, Orlando Borrego. Unlike the rest of his presidential team, Borrego’s appointment has caused quite a stir. His past as Che Guevara’s battle companion during the Cuban revolution, along with high-level posts under the Castro’s regime, has fueled speculation of an eventual radicalization for Maduro’s socialist model.
With an implied annual inflation rate of 140 percent, Maduro has had little choice but to shuffle the staff of his economic bureau. With former Minister of Planning Jorge Giordani out of the picture, the potential for a less-orthodox socialism arose. However, such hopes faded with Maduro’s most recent appointment:
“Orlando Borrego … is assigned to a special team alongside the minister for planning, Ricardo Menéndez, Jesús Martínez [minister for labor] and other colleagues who are preparing a set of plans… to execute a complete and deep revolution in the public administration, in the state administration, a revolution inside the revolution,” the president stated on Tuesday during his weekly radio show, In Contact With Maduro.
Borrego, a 77-year-old economist who acquired his education in Havana and Moscow, “was a peer of Ernesto Che Guevara in the battles of the revolution,” Maduro explained.
http://panampost.com/marcela-estrada/2014/07/03/che-battle-comrade-becomes-maduros-new-economic-adviser/
This is something that slipped under the radar a couple of months back.
