Ernesto Villegas Explained

Ernesto Villegas
Order:2nd
Office:Head of Government of the Venezuelan Capital District
Term Start:October 13, 2014
Term End:May 26, 2015
President:Nicolás Maduro
Predecessor:Jacqueline Faría
Successor:Juan Carlos Dugarte
Office2:Minister of State for the Revolutionary Transformation of Greater Caracas
Term Start2:December 2013
Term End2:2015
President2:Nicolás Maduro
Predecessor2:Francisco de Asís Sesto Novas
Office3:Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information
Term Start3:October 4, 2016
Term End3:November 3, 2017
President3:Nicolás Maduro
Predecessor3:Luis José Marcano Salazar
Successor3:Jorge Rodríguez
Term Start4:October 13, 2012
Term End4:August 4, 2013
President4:Hugo Chávez (2012–2013)
Nicolas Maduro (2013)
Predecessor4:Andrés Izarra
Successor4:Delcy Rodríguez
Birth Date:29 April 1970
Birth Place:Caracas, Venezuela
Party:United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
Spouse:Klara Aguilar Vásquez
Alma Mater:Central 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

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

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ernesto Villegas: Un ministro con buen humor pero muy serio. Colarebo. October 24, 2014.
  2. News: Cruz Villegas: "Un hombre de firmes principios y gran sensibilidad social". October 24, 2014. Noticias24. January 16, 2009. August 22, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160822064713/http://www.noticias24.com/actualidad/noticia/22881/cruz-villegas-un-hombre-de-firmes-principios-y-gran-sensibilidad-social/. dead.
  3. News: Conozca el perfil de los seis nuevos ministros designados por el presidente Chávez . October 24, 2014 . Globovision . October 13, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130116031136/http://globovision.com/articulo/conozca-el-perfil-de-los-seis-nuevos-ministros-designados-por-el-presidente-chavez . January 16, 2013 . mdy .
  4. Treasury sanctions ten Venezuelan government officials. U.S. Department of the Treasury . 9 November 2017 . 3 April 2019 .
  5. News: Estos son los 55 "rojitos" que Panamá puso en la mira por fondos dudosos El Cooperante. 2018-03-29. El Cooperante. 2018-04-01. es-ES.
  6. Web site: Publican lista de venezolanos de alto riesgo en Blanqueo de Capitales en Panamá. ElVenezolano. March 29, 2018.