CARACAS – President Hugo Chavez named Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua to succeed Col. Ramon Carrizalez as Venezuela’s vice president.

Jaua will continue to hold the agriculture portfolio, much as Carrizalez, who announced his resignation on Monday, combined the posts of vice president and defense minister.

“I decided on Elias, who is a young man integrated into the revolution from his youth as a student leader, and who has a transparent career, of honesty, with a vocation for work in all the offices he has occupied,” the leftist president told state television Tuesday night.

Chavez said he waited a day before naming a new vice president to give himself time to reflect on the choice.

The president had earlier dismissed speculation about the unexpected departure of Carrizalez, one of his closest allies.

“He sought to resign for strictly personal reasons and his wife, the environment minister, Yubiri Ortega (who also stepped down). I know the reasons, I respect them and I share them. I would do the same in his place,” Chavez said.

The head of state also announced the appointment of Gen. Carlos Mata as defense minister and named engineer Alejandro Hitcher to take over for Ortega at the environment ministry.

Hitcher has been running Hidrocapital, the state-owned water utility serving metropolitan Caracas. EFE