Ernesto Villegas
2nd Head of Government of the Venezuelan Capital District
In office
October 13, 2014 – May 26, 2015
PresidentNicolás Maduro
Preceded byJacqueline Faría
Succeeded byJuan Carlos Dugarte
Minister of State for the Revolutionary Transformation of Greater Caracas
Assumed office
December 2013
PresidentNicolás Maduro
Preceded byFrancisco de Asís Sesto Novas
Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information
In office
October 4, 2016 – November 3, 2017
PresidentNicolás Maduro
Preceded byLuis José Marcano Salazar
Succeeded byJorge Rodríguez
In office
October 13, 2012 – August 4, 2013
PresidentHugo Chávez (2012–2013)
Nicolas Maduro (2013)
Preceded byAndrés Izarra
Succeeded byDelcy Rodríguez
Personal details
Born (1970-04-29) 29 April 1970 (age 53)
Caracas, Venezuela
Political partyUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
SpouseKlara Aguilar Vásquez
Alma materCentral University of Venezuela

Ernesto Emilio Villegas Poljak is a journalist, politician, and writer from Venezuela.

Biography

Ernesto Villegas was born in Caracas in 1970. He is the youngest of eight children, two of them, Mario and Vladimir, Alice, Clara, Esperanza, Tatiana and Asia.[1]

He is the son of Cruz Villegas, head union communist,[2] confined to the Amazon jungle during the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, and former president of the United Workers of Venezuela (CUTV) and vice president of the World Federation of Trade Unions. His mother, Maja Poljak was Jewish and a Communist social activist and photographer born in Zagreb, Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia.[1]

Villegas graduated as a journalist from Central University of Venezuela. He had worked in media such as newspapers Economía Hoy, El Nuevo País, El Universal and Quinto Día, En Confianza, Despertó Venezuela and Toda Venezuela of Venezolana de Televisión. He was the editor of the newspaper Ciudad Caracas.[3]

He was the Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information from October 2012 until August 2013. Later, he was appointed as Minister of State for the Revolutionary Transformation of Greater Caracas since December 2013. From October 2014 to May 2015, he was the Head of Government for the Venezuelan Capital District.

Controversy

Sanctions

Further information: International sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis

In November 2017, Ernesto Villegas was sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control after the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election.[4]

On 29 March 2018, Villegas was sanctioned by the Panamanian government for his alleged involvement with "money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction".[5][6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Ernesto Villegas: Un ministro con buen humor pero muy serio". Colarebo. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  2. ^ "Cruz Villegas: "Un hombre de firmes principios y gran sensibilidad social"". Noticias24. January 16, 2009. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  3. ^ "Conozca el perfil de los seis nuevos ministros designados por el presidente Chávez". Globovision. October 13, 2012. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  4. ^ "Treasury sanctions ten Venezuelan government officials" (Press release). U.S. Department of the Treasury. November 9, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  5. ^ "Estos son los 55 "rojitos" que Panamá puso en la mira por fondos dudosos | El Cooperante". El Cooperante (in European Spanish). March 29, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  6. ^ "Publican lista de venezolanos de alto riesgo en Blanqueo de Capitales en Panamá". ElVenezolano. Retrieved March 29, 2018.


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