Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday announced several new appointments to his Cabinet, but his selection of Tareck El Aissami as new vice president was a controversial one, the Miami Herald reports.

Maduro, the governor of Aragua state and former minister of interior, was investigated for drug trafficking last year according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. He called the allegations “worthless” at the time.

The opposition-led National Assembly in Venezuela, unhappy with the economic crisis, scarcity of basic food items and medicine and rising violent crime, has pushed to oust Maduro through a recall referendum. If that were to happen, Aissami, 43, would assume the presidency and finish Maduro’s term through 2019.

Maduro, who has been in office since 2013, said in a nationally televised address that the Cabinet changes are a “necessary renewal” and they would “combine experience, commitment and the new stage of the government of the street.”

In other moves, Ramón Lobo, a lawmaker from the western Merida state, was named as the new economy and finance minister and Nelson Martínez, head of Venezuela’s oil refineries in the U.S., was selected to lead the oil ministry.

• In Escalation of Crisis, Venezuela Congress to Put Maduro on Trial
• Venezuela’s Currency Is Collapsing on the Black Market Again