Background
On 3 July 2009, the Mayor of the Metropolitan District of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, went to the offices of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Caracas and declared the beginning of a hunger strike in rejection of the Hugo Chávez government's disavowal of him as Mayor of Caracas. According to Ledezma, the strike was a success since the government and the OAS gave in to his demands. The day before, in the evening hours, the Sole Authority of the Capital District, a new entity created by decree of President Hugo Chávez, which assumed powers taken away from Ledezma in the context of a reform, announced the transfer to the mayor's office of a "financial aid" of 52,000 bolivars (approximately US$24,186) so that the Metropolitan Mayor's Office, whose headquarters in Caracas also passed from Ledezma's hands to the newly created government of the Capital District, "may proceed to cancel, strictly" the payrolls for June and July, said a statement.[2] On the other hand, it was also announced that the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, has promised to receive a commission of governors and parliamentarians in Washington, D.C., and that he would meet with a group of governors and parliamentarians from the OAS.[3]
History
In 2012, the then opposition governor of Miranda state, Henrique Capriles, denounced this type of appointments when Nicolás Maduro created CorpoMiranda, an entity with regional public administration functions in which Elías Jaua, then foreign affairs minister and defeated when he was candidate for governor of Miranda in the regional elections of that year, had been appointed as director.[4]
After the 2017 regional elections, Maduro appointed "protectors" for several states where the opposition had won, assuring that he was appointing them "so as not to leave the people in the lurch".[4] Maduro promised to eliminate the position of protectors after the 2021 regional elections.[4]