On Friday she named the leaders of new Strategic Regions of Integrated Defense (REDI), charged with ensuring “peace, sovereignty and security across the national territory,” Rodriguez posted on Telegram.

“With this reform, we are reinforcing the operative capabilities of the REDI,” she said, a day after replacing all of the Military High Command.

For Sebastiana Barraez, a Venezuelan journalist specialized in military affairs, the eight new REDI leaders “are the ones who really control the military,” she told AFP.

Under US pressure since the seizure of Maduro, Rodriguez is tasked with leading a country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves but an economy in shambles, with widespread shortages of food, medicine and other basics.

She is in the delicate position of trying to satisfy both US President Donald Trump and Venezuelans still loyal to Maduro, who was taken to New York along with his wife for trial on US-issued drug trafficking charges.

Venezuela’s military, which has pledged allegiance to Rodriguez, has long been a powerful entity backing Maduro, and Hugo Chavez before him.

“There’s no doubt that replacing all the top military command is part of a new phase for the armed forces,” said Barraez.

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