Caracas Chronicles

…because it looks like we have a new world record for the most State Vice-Ministries.

Nicolas Maduro has decided to reform the government in more ways than one. Besides the seven cabinet changes announced last week (none of them newsworthy), he also rearranged the entire structure of deputy ministers by decree.

The result: 111 Vice-Ministers, who will complement the current number of 39 Ministers (according to the Official Gazette).

Venezuela doesn’t have the record for Most Government Ministries. Yet. That honor belongs to Sri Lanka, whose President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, apparently named 52 ministers in his cabinet after taking office in 2005. CC te enseña, CC te entretiene…

One question: all 111 Vice-Ministers will have their own security detail (escolta), right? I think I know the answer to that one. Meanwhile, here are some examples of new posts:

• Vice-Ministry for the People’s Supreme Social Happiness (Wait… it isn’t that new)
• Vice-Ministry for Socialist Industrial Management
• Vice-Ministry for Articulation with Higher Education Instititutions
• Vice-Ministry for Educational Communities and Union with the People
• Vice-Ministry for Collective Health Networks
• Vice-Ministry for New Socialist Urban and Rural Arrangement
  
• Vice-Ministry for the System of Communal Formation and Social Movements
• Vice-Ministry for the Socialist Food System
• Vice-Ministry for the Promotion of the Cultural Economy
• Vice-Ministry for the Social Networks (Because #TROPA)

For better enjoyment, I recommend reading the list with this accompanying tune. HIT IT!