Pedro José Atacho (born 20 September 1960) is a Curaçaoan politician. He was a member of the Party for the Restructured Antilles. During his political career he was Minister of Justice of the

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

from 1994 to 1998. He served in the

Estates of the Netherlands Antilles The Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles (; ), also translated as the Estates of the Netherlands Antilles, was the parliament of the Netherlands Antilles. It comprised 22 members, elected for a four-year term in three multi-seat constituencies a ...

, including a period as Speaker between 2007 and 2010. After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010 Atacho became a member of the

Estates of Curaçao Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representati ...

Career

Atacho was born in

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 ...

, Venezuela, on 20 September 1960. He was trained as a police officer in the Netherlands. In 1990 Atacho served as head of the narcotics department of Curaçao. In 1994 Atacho became Minister of Justice of the

in the cabinet of

Miguel Pourier Miguel Arcangel Pourier (29 September 1938 – 23 March 2013) served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles three times. He first served from 6 July 1979 to December 1979; he next served from 31 March 1994 to 14 May 1998 and he last served ...

. He intended to resigned on 10 March 1997, after four Venezuelan bankrobbers had escaped from the Koraal Specht prison. A week before three convicted murders also managed to escape. However, Prime Minister Pourier wished that he would continue as Minister. Atacho stayed on and starting later that month Dutch Marines had to assist with keeping prisoners inside the prison terrain. A parliamentary report on the state of the prison system led to Atacho's resignation on 24 March 1998. During his political career Atacho helped form six cabinets. In 2002 Atacho was

informateur A formateur (French for "someone who forms, who constitutes") is a politician who is appointed to lead the formation of a coalition government, after either a general election or the collapse of a previous government. The role of the formateur i ...

and formateur for the first cabinet of Prime Minister

Etienne Ys Etienne Nestor Ys (born 26 February 1962) is a Curaçaoan politician who served as the 23rd and 26th Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles from 2002 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2006. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 1994 to ...

. He also helped to form the second cabinet of Ys in 2004. In 2006 he was informateur for the

Emily de Jongh-Elhage Emily Saïdy de Jongh-Elhage (born 7 December 1946) is a former Curaçaoan politician who served as the 27th prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles from 2006 until its dissolution in 2010. Following the 2010 Curaçao general election Islan ...

cabinet. He also helped to form the last cabinet of the Netherlands Antilles, which was formed after the

2010 Netherlands Antilles general election General elections were held in the Netherlands Antilles on 22 January 2010. Voters elected the 22 members of the Estates, or parliament, of the Netherlands Antilles. It has been the country's last general election, as the Netherlands Antilles ha ...

. Atacho was member of the

. He was Speaker from 5 October 2007 to 22 September 2010. While he was Chairman the Estates of the Netherlands Antilles voted for changes to the Statute which led to the possible dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. Atacho called it "a historic day". After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles Atacho became a member of the

. He voted against the 2012 budget. In 2014 Atacho left the Party for the Restructured Antilles, stating he wished to end his political career. In April 2017, after a motion was adopted in the Estates of Curaçao to limit the role of the Governor of Curaçao in the formation process, Atacho stated that the motion would be difficult to ignore and deemed it logical that the Estates should pick its own informateur.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atacho, Pedro 1960 births Living people Government ministers of the Netherlands Antilles Members of the Estates of Curaçao Members of the Estates of the Netherlands Antilles Party for the Restructured Antilles politicians Politicians from Caracas Speakers of the Estates of the Netherlands Antilles