Aristóbulo Istúriz Almeida (20 December 1946 – 27 April 2021) was a Venezuelan politician and academic who was vice president of the

Constituent Assembly of Venezuela The Constituent National Assembly ( es, Asamblea Nacional Constituyente; ANC) was a constituent assembly elected in 2017 to draft a new constitution for Venezuela. Its members were elected in a special 2017 election that was condemned by over fo ...

in August 2017; he was also the

vice president of Venezuela The vice president of Venezuela ( es, Vicepresidente de Venezuela), officially known as the Executive Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, Vicepresidente Ejecutivo de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is the second ...

from January 2016 to January 2017.

Life and career

He was a professor at the ''Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo'' (CENDES) of the

Universidad Central de Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...

. He was elected to Parliament several times for

Acción Democrática Democratic Action ( es, Acción Democrática, AD) is a Venezuelan social democratic and centre-left political party established in 1941. The party played an important role in the early years of Venezuelan democracy, leading the government durin ...

, representing the Federal District (now the

Capital District A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...

), before joining the

Radical Cause The Radical Cause ( es, La Causa Radical, LCR), stylized as La Causa Я, is a minor left-wing political party in Venezuela, and today part of the Venezuelan opposition to president Nicolás Maduro. At its peak in the early 1990s, the party came ...

in 1986. He was elected as Mayor of the Libertador Municipality of

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

on 6 December 1992, serving in that post until 2 January 1996. After finishing his term as mayor (having lost his re-election bid to

Antonio Ledezma Antonio José Ledezma Díaz (born 1 May 1955) is a Venezuelan lawyer, politician and former political prisoner. After unsuccessfully challenging for the leadership of Democratic Action in 1999, he founded a new party, the Fearless People's Al ...

), he became co-presenter of the

Globovisión Globovisión is a 24-hour television news network. It broadcasts over-the-air in Caracas, Aragua (state), Aragua, Carabobo and Zulia on Ultra high frequency, UHF channel 33. Globovisión is seen in the rest of Venezuela on cable or satellite ( ...

television show ''Blanco y Negro''. In 1997, together with some other ex-Radical Cause members, he co-founded

Homeland for All Fatherland for All (''Patria Para Todos'', PPT) is a leftist political party in Venezuela. It was founded on September 27, 1997 by members of The Radical Cause party led by Pablo Medina, Aristóbulo Istúriz and Alí Rodríguez Araque. In 1998 ...

(''Patria Para Todos'', PPT), which in the 1998 presidential election decided to support

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

. Between 2001 and 2007 he served as Minister of Education in Chávez's government. In 2008 Istúriz was the pro-Chávez Patriotic Alliance's candidate for Mayor of Caracas; he was narrowly defeated. He was leader of the Venezuelan teachers' association SUMA for a time.Margarita López-Maya, "The Rise of Causa R in Venezuela", in Douglas A. Chalmers, Carlos M. Vilas, Katherine Hite, Scott B. Martin, Kerianne Piester, Monique Segarra (editors), ''The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America: Rethinking Participation and Representation'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p129 In the 2012 regional elections, he was elected Governor of

Anzoátegui ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Anzoátegui'' , image_map = Anzoategui in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_a ...

. On 6 January 2016, President

Nicolas Maduro Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

appointed Istúriz as Vice President of Venezuela. He remained in office for one year, until

Tareck El Aissami Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (; ar, طارق زيدان العيسمي مداح; born 12 November 1974) is a Venezuelan politician serving as Minister of Industries and National Production since 14 June 2018, and as Minister of Petroleum sin ...

was appointed to succeed him on 4 January 2017. In October 2017, Istúriz ran again for governor of Anzoátegui. He lost to

MUD A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

/ AD candidate Antonio Barreto Sira.

Death

Istúriz died on 27 April 2021, following complications from an open-heart surgery.

Controversy

Sanctions

Canada sanctioned 40 Venezuelan officials, including Istúriz, in September 2017. Also a
Punto de Corte
an
El Nacional
/ref> The sanctions were for behaviors that undermined democracy after at least 125 people were killed in the

2017 Venezuelan protests The 2017 Venezuelan protests were a series of protests occurring throughout Venezuela. Protests began in January 2017 after the arrest of multiple opposition leaders and the cancellation of dialogue between the opposition and Nicolás Maduro's g ...

and "in response to the government of Venezuela's deepening descent into dictatorship";

Chrystia Freeland Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician serving as the tenth and current deputy prime minister of Canada since 2019 and the Minister of Finance (Canada), minister of finance since 2020. A member of the Libe ...

, Foreign Minister said, "Canada will not stand by silently as the government of Venezuela robs its people of their fundamental democratic rights." The Canadian regulations of the ''Special Economic Measures Act'' prohibited any "person in Canada and any Canadian outside Canada from: dealing in property, wherever situated, that is owned, held or controlled by listed persons or a person acting on behalf of a listed person; entering into or facilitating any transaction related to a dealing prohibited by these Regulations; providing any financial or related services in respect of a dealing prohibited by these Regulations; making available any goods, wherever situated, to a listed person or a person acting on behalf of a listed person; and providing any financial or other related services to or for the benefit of a listed person."

References

External links

*
Official website
, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Isturiz, Aristobulo 1946 births 2021 deaths Central University of Venezuela faculty Democratic Action (Venezuela) politicians Fatherland for All politicians Government ministers of Venezuela Governors of Anzoátegui Mayors of places in Venezuela People from Miranda (state) People of the Crisis in Venezuela Radical Cause politicians United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians Venezuelan city councillors Venezuelan schoolteachers Vice presidents of Venezuela Death in Caracas