This is one pic TELESUR picked to try to make Delcy look competent. Draw your own conclusions.

On July 7th, Delcy Rodríguez presented her “Venezuela Born Again” (Venezuela Renace) plan to recover all buildings and areas hit by the deadly June 24th earthquakes. The promise is not only rebuilding infrastructure but also offering economic assistance to those affected thanks to funds from the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organizations.

This happened just a week after her press conference on July 2nd, in which she faced multiple questions from foreign reporters about the government’s late and unorganized response to the disaster in La Guaira. Rodríguez denied those claims, blaming disinformation from “media labs” while defending the military.

The “media labs” argument was immediately taken up by State outlets and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello on his weekly TV show “Con El Mazo Dando”, in which he insulted international correspondents who covered the disaster.

The saying “old habits die hard” can be applied here: the Rodrigato has been unable to avoid and hide the public backlash over its management of the earthquakes’ aftermath, which has been front and center of the reporting made by mainstream international media, like when a crew of Norway’s TV2 recorded La Guaira resident Damely Díaz, who lost both her daughter and her home, openly berating Nicolas Maduro Guerra.

Now, the regime is once again blaming the messenger, taking advantage of the actual problem of disinformation on social media to point at “political interests that want to take advantage of the humanitarian tragedy”. 

This comes as the official attempt to establish the narrative that Delcy Rodriguez is in full control has been undermined by self-imposed limitations. TalCual’s Victor Amaya offered a glimpse: “Outside of fleeting visits to collapsed areas, (Delcy) Rodriguez has appeared almost always indoors, meeting rescue workers who she interrupts in their labor to thank them in from of the camera, decorating government officers, greeting Hernan Gil (a security guard rescued after eight days trapped in Catia La Mar) and more recently, in visits to stokepile centers and shelters. His brother Jorge became the de facto spokesperson for official numbers of dead and wounded.”

The Great Mission Venezuela Renace actually merged three existing infrastructure-related government programs: Barrio Nuevo Barrio Tricolor, Juntos Todo es Posible and Venezuela Bella. It also shares its name with a web platform initiative launched back in May to register young Venezuelans with diverse skills to return and help out. The difference is that the word order changes.

It can be said to some extent that Venezuela Renace works as a reboot of the government’s communicational strategy, even if that’s not its main purpose. And taking in consideration what’s been seen so far, it couldn’t be more different from the previous one: Venezuela Vuela Libre.

While Venezuela Vuela Libre was like a balloon trial of what Delcy’s election campaign could look like in a hypothetical snap presidential election, Venezuela Renace is a doubling-down of the “stateswoman” role that she has tried to carve for herself in her public showings while adapting it to the current circumstances of the country. 

Unlike in Venezuela Vuela Libre, where Delcy’s image was absent, she’s front and center in Venezuela Renace, supervising works or in official meetings. Even their visuals differ drastically: Venezuela Vuela Libre’s iconography was mostly related to peace and faith, while its main logo showed color (with blue, not red, dominating the palette). 

Venezuela Renace is clearer on its communication goals than whatever Venezuela Vuela Libre was trying to achieve (before it was minimized and later unceremoniously dropped after June 24th for quite obvious reasons). But what is the audience it’s going to appeal to? The Venezuelan people? International media? Maybe it targets the biggest supporter of the Rodrigato since January 3 and one of the most (if not the biggest) sources of assistance after June 24: the Trump administration. No wonder, in their “media labs” response, State propaganda avoided mentioning Trump or the United States, instead blaming María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia.

Most probably, it’s the Americans the only ones whom Delcy Rodríguez is interested in convincing that her government is doing things right.