Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named Pedro Tegetchea as the new oil minister on Tuesday, replacing the powerful until yesterday Tarek El Aisami, who submitted his resignation the day before Monday, due to the involvement of his close associates in a corruption case.

Mr Tegecea, an engineer and army colonel, had been head of state-owned oil company PdVSA since January, having also run petrochemicals subsidiary Pequiven and state-owned aluminum company Venalum.

“I met with the president of PdVSA, the engineer Pedro Tegecea, and named him the new Minister of Petroleum, as part of the transformation process that the industry is experiencing. Maximum efficiency, comrade!” Mr. Maduro said via Twitter.

Mr Tegetchea will replace Chavismo icon Tarek El Aisami, the country’s former vice president, whose close aides have been targeted in an ongoing anti-corruption “crusade”.

At least 19 public officials have been arrested in the country as part of this anti-corruption “crusade” with PdVSA at the center.

Prosecutor Tarek William Schaab recalled that his agencies have conducted 27 anti-corruption investigations centered on PdVSA since 2017 and have arrested more than 200 suspects.

Among the latter were several PdVSA officials and two former oil ministers, Eulogio del Pino and Nelson Martinez — who died while in custody.

Another former oil minister, once a confidant of the dead former president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Rafael Ramírez, is accused of abuse by the authorities, who are seeking — so far in vain — his extradition from Italy, where he fled.