1.
GVs President Perez and new Venezuelan cabinet seated in room listening to speaker (4 shots)
0.40

2.
GV President swearing in cabinet members
0.56

3.
GVs newsmen watch as President signs book with other Minister (3 shots)
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4.
GV President leaving
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:



Venezuela, the world's fourth-largest oil exporting country, produced a daily average of 2,294,347 barrels of oil last year. Output was 2.21 per cent down on 1975.




Initials BB/2005



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION Venezuela's Government cabinet has been reorganised with the upgrading of a number of ministerial portfolios, and changes in the names and responsibilities of others. The change-over was preceded by the resignation of the entire previous cabinet.

SYNOPSIS: The Venezuelan President, Carlos Andres Perez, said he had accepted the resignation of his cabinet as a prelude to the restructuring and redesignation of several ministerial offices. But the resignations did not mean there was a government crisis in the country. It was merely a move to give himself a free hand to choose new heads of the government's departments, he said. The new cabinet was introduced on Friday (7 January) at a meeting which ended with the official swearing-in ceremony at the President's Miraflores Palace in Caracas, the capital.

There are 22 ministers in the new Venezuelan government -- five more than in the previous cabinet. The newly-created departments are responsible for Environment and Urban Development, Youth, Information and Tourism, Communication and Transportation, and Energy and Mines.

But otherwise there are few new faces in the cabinet, and the key ministerial positions of interior, finance and foreign affairs are occupied by the same men. Changes in other ministers represent a tighter control by government over the economy, according to reports form Caracas. In May 1974, President Perez was granted extraordinary powers to deal with the country's economic problems. His government's policy has been to invest heavily in industrial development, and to nationalise important sectors. A year ago Venezuela nationalised oil industries owned by foreign companies.