Venezuela reshuffles cabinet, backs away from economic shake-up

By Alexandra Ulmer CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro has reshuffled his cabinet in a bid to boost his popularity but shows no sign of revamping Venezuela’s troubled economy, meaning prospects of gasoline price hikes and a unification of Byzantine currency controls have dimmed. Caught between trying to preserve predecessor Hugo Chavez’s socialist legacy and fixing the economy, Maduro on Tuesday night pushed Rafael Ramirez from his twin posts as oil minister and boss of state oil company PDVSA, ending the official’s decade-long grip on the country’s energy industry. Maduro promoted PDVSA’s [PDVSA.UL] exploration and production chief, Eulogio Del Pino, to the company’s top job and tapped Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of late leader Chavez, to lead the oil ministry.