Willian Lara (28 July 1959 – 10 September 2010) was a
Venezuela
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 ...
n politician. Elected several times to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
, he was the Minister of Communication and Information between 2006 and 2008 and Governor of
Guárico
)
, anthem = '' Himno del Estado Guárico''
, image_map = Guarico in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_a ...
state from 2008 to 2010. Prior to the creation of the
PSUV
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) is a left-wing to far-left socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2010. It was formed from a merger of some of the p ...
in 2007, he was the national director of its main predecessor, 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 ...
(MVR), having been one of its founders in 1997.
[''El Revolucionario'', 20 December 2006,]
William Lara anuncia formalmente la disolución del Movimiento Quinta República
/ref>
Biography
Lara was born in El Socorro, in Guárico state, in 1959. After studying social communication at the Central University of 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 ...
and completing a masters in political science at the Simón Bolívar University, he became a professor at the latter.[ He was elected to the 1999 Constitutional Assembly which wrote the new ]Constitution of Venezuela
The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (CRBV)) is the current and twenty-sixth constitution of Venezuela. It was drafted in mid-1999 by a constituent assembly that h ...
.[ Lara played a key role in the efforts to institute internal democracy in the MVR; in June 2003 it became the first Venezuelan political party to do so, with over a million members taking part in the first elections.][
In early 2006 Lara sharply criticized the government's media policy, and was subsequently appointed Minister of Communication and Information, replacing ]Yuri Pimentel Yuri may refer to:
People and fictional characters
Given name
*Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc.
*Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
after the latter had been in office only seven months; he was succeeded by Andrés Izarra.[ He was elected governor of ]Guárico
)
, anthem = '' Himno del Estado Guárico''
, image_map = Guarico in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_a ...
state in the 2008 regional elections.
On 10 September 2010 at 4:30 in the afternoon, under a heavy rain, Willian Lara disappeared after being involved in a traffic accident near the edge of the river Paya in Guárico State. The car, driven by himself, landed in the river. His chauffeur, who was in the co-pilot seat, although injured, survived and was rushed to the hospital. He later said that Lara had gotten out of the vehicle by his own means but he saw Lara's body being taken away by the river's current. Lara's body was found several hours later.['' El Universal'', 11 September 2010,]
Localizan cuerpo de Willian Lara
/ref>
At his funeral, president Hugo Chávez said that "Lara will be remembered as one of the founders of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela", (full name of the country since the new Constitution was approved in 2000).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lara, Willian
1957 births
2010 deaths
Deaths by drowning
Governors of Guárico
People from Guárico
Speakers of the National Assembly (Venezuela)
Simón Bolívar University (Venezuela) faculty
Government ministers of Venezuela
Central University of Venezuela alumni
Accidental deaths in Venezuela
Fifth Republic Movement politicians
United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians