The general secretary of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, clarified during the party’s press conference that workers will not be laid off as part of the government’s proposed “state re-engineering.”“It is a lie that half of the workers will be laid off,” he said at the press conference on Monday, June 15, adding that this “rumor” comes from “the usual demagogues.”Regarding the re-structuring process, Cabello emphasized that the size of the public administration is part of an “eternal debate.”“Above all, there are ministries—many ministries, bodies, and institutions that sometimes bureaucratize more than necessary,” he remarked.In this regard, he added that the National Assembly approved a law to ensure the speed and optimization of public procedures.“Every time there is a public procedure, an opportunity gets opened for an unscrupulous official. Although everyone does not fall into that temptation, the goal is to make any procedure much easier and faster,” he said.Cabello also stated that laws “do not work on their own” and that the decision to move forward with the “reorganization of the state” has been a pending task for many years.“We were accused of all sorts of things,” he added. “I remember when I was a minister of other bodies, we did not come in and fire those who were already there. There are positions of trust where the change is logical and normal, but for the day-to-day officials, we are not going to chase them out.”Moreover, he explained that a comprehensive review of public administration is currently underway. “Those who are ministers or are at the head of each state agency must review the functioning of their structure, because there is an entity that should be in a specific ministry, but it appears to be assigned to another; that is, it is about the reorganization of the state and I believe that all Venezuelans would want that,” he stated.“That does not mean at all that half of the workers are going to be laid off, that is a lie. Those who propagate that belong to the usual demagogues,” Cabello said.Under the Banner of ‘State Re-engineering,’ Venezuela Begins Restructuring Amid Fears of IMF-Style State ShrinkingThe Amnesty Law is not foreverWhen asked about the Amnesty Law, Cabello said that it “is not eternal” and reiterated that this measure does not cover “future crimes, any crime that may occur,” nor “murders, drug trafficking, or money laundering.” He pointed out that PSUV fully supported the aforementioned law.He added that Deputy Jorge Arreaza has already addressed the situation. He further noted that some people who “were allegedly being persecuted staged a show at the airport, claiming that they were being persecuted, and then anonymity has consumed them, no one knows who they are. Many returned and left again, including Lester Toledo, to name one.”“They pretend to be angels, they no longer remember that they were the ones who promoted the gangs in Petare,” Cabello said, while emphasizing that the Amnesty Law represented a great step toward reconciliation and the unity of the country.“Hopefully, those who have benefited [from the law] will feel morally committed to this law and will participate in real politics, in the streets, alongside the people,” he concluded. (Últimas Noticias)Translation: Orinoco TribuneOT/SC/SH