Venezuela names new foreign minister in quake aftermath

Writing on Telegram, Rodriguez said she had made Venezuela's head of mission in the United States, Felix Plasencia, her country's new top diplomat, replacing Yvan Gil, who has held the job since 2023.

Plasencia, a veteran diplomat who previously served as foreign minister between 2021 and 2022 and has also served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and China, will head a new ministry that merges foreign affairs and trade.

He was appointed to Washington in February as part of a major reset in US-Venezuelan relations following the US capture of socialist president Nicolas Maduro, a US arch-foe, one month earlier.

Gil will become Minister of Science and Technology.

The cabinet reshuffle comes as Venezuela begins the slow process of rebuilding after catastrophic back-to-back June 24 earthquakes.

The United States has pledged nearly $400 million in aid for Venezuela and deployed two warships to the region to help the reconstruction effort.

On Monday, Venezuela's parliament chief Jorge Rodriguez updated the death toll in the disaster to 4,561.

A further 16,740 were injured.

The updated counts did not give an estimate for the number of people still unaccounted for, but thousands have been reported missing by family members.