Francisco José Ameliach Orta (born 14 June 1963) is a

Venezuelan Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

retired military officer and politician who is vice president of the

United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since ...

(PSUV).

Political career

Born in Valencia, Ameliach was part of the

1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

led by

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 ...

, later in 1999 he retired of the National Armed Forces in order to be candidate to the National Constituent Assembly. In 2000 he joined the

Fifth Republic Movement The Fifth Republic Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento V uintaRepública'', MVR) was a socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the ca ...

and was elected to the National Assembly on 6 January 2000. He was reelected in 2005. In 2008 Ameliach ran for the candidature for Governor of Carabobo but lost the primary election against Mario Silva. In 2012 he finally won the elections defeating incumbent Governor

Henrique Salas Feo Henrique Fernando Salas Feo (born December 14, 1960) is a Venezuelan politician, President of the centre-right party Project Venezuela, and the former governor of Carabobo State. He is the son of the former Carabobo Governor and 1998 presidentia ...

Sanctions

Ameliach has been sanctioned by several countries. On 9 August 2017, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

placed sanctions on Ameliach for his position in the Presidential Commission in the

2017 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 ...

. Months later on 22 September 2017,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

sanctioned Ameliach due to rupture of Venezuela's constitutional order. On 29 March 2018, Ameliach 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 A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

References

1963 births Living people People from Valencia, Venezuela Fifth Republic Movement politicians United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians Members of the National Assembly (Venezuela) Speakers of the National Assembly (Venezuela) Governors of Carabobo People of the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts {{Venezuela-politician-stub