CARACAS, Venezuela - (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, bowing to calls for more pro-market policies after a brief coup last month, named new economic ministers on Sunday but filled the key defense and interior ministry posts with loyal supporters.
Since his dramatic reinstatement April 14 by loyalist troops and civilians, Chavez has been under pressure to change his cabinet, especially his economic team, and to introduce more market-friendly policies.
The populist president, a left-wing former paratrooper who has ruled the world's No. 5 oil exporter since 1998, named new planning, finance, defense and interior ministers during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.
As his new defense and interior ministers, Chavez chose known loyalists, reflecting fears that his grip on power was still shaky following the April 11-14 coup in which more than 60 people were killed in street protests and looting.
Chavez's armed forces chief, army Gen. Lucas Rincon, was made defense minister, while the interior ministry job went to former army officer Diosdado Cabello, 39, a close ally of the president who had previously served as his vice president.
The appointment as planning minister of Felipe Perez, 47, an economics professor with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, ended Jorge Giordani's three-year domination of Chavez's economic team.
Giordani, 61, a left-wing academic, was closely associated with the left-wing statist economic policies that have characterized Chavez's self-proclaimed "revolution."
Tobias Nobrega, a banking and finance specialist without government experience, was named finance minister, completing a new-look economic team that analysts said was likely to be well received, at least at first, by local and foreign investors.
"These are people with a solid background in economics and I think it is a clear demonstration of a willingness to seek solutions and a change in economic direction," economic analyst Jose Grasso told Reuters.
"People are going to be relieved that Giordani has gone and without doubt, that will generate more confidence," said Orlando Ochoa, an economist and professor at Caracas' Catholic University.
Chavez has said he is even willing to consider opposition calls to tone down left-leaning reforms, such as a law to redistribute idle private rural estates to the poor, and a law reasserting state control over the strategic oil industry.
In comments to Reuters, new Planning Minister Perez said he would maintain the basic strategy of Giordani's policies, which have concentrated on social spending to fight poverty.
"But there has to be sustainable fiscal management," Perez said, promising "pretty orthodox measures" in this area.
RESTLESS MILITARY
Since his return to power last month after spending 48 hours in military custody, the president surprised many by retaining Rincon as his armed forces chief.
At the start of the April 11-14 coup, Rincon announced that Chavez had resigned. The president denied ever having quit.
Rincon told a parliamentary inquiry Saturday he had made the announcement to prevent a civil war and avert bloodshed between anti- and pro-Chavez factions in the armed forces.
But he has been criticized by dissident officers and by opposition politicians and he clearly faces an uphill job trying to unite the divided military.
Gen. Rincon takes over from Jose Vicente Rangel, who was named vice president by Chavez a week ago, replacing Cabello.
In the interior ministry post, Cabello replaced another former military officer, Ramon Rodriguez. Foes of Chavez had demanded Rodriguez's resignation after the killing of 17 people by unidentified gunmen in a huge anti-Chavez march April 11.
Since his return, Chavez has promised an inquiry into the deaths during the coup and has offered a dialogue with his foes, as long as they respect the country's 1999 Constitution.