William Ernesto Izarra Caldera (7 May 1947 – 1 October 2021) was a Venezuelan diplomat, military official, and politician. He also worked as a professor for 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 L ...

Biography

Following his military service, Izarra earned a master's degree in public policy planning from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and was awarded an honorary doctorate from

Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez is a university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer ...

in 2010. He was a member of the

Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 The Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200 or MBR-200) was the political and social movement that the later Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez founded in 1982. It eventually planned and executed the Februa ...

, 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 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 ...

. He also organized the Alianza Revolucionaria de Oficiales Activos. In 1989, he joined the Frente Patriótico Revolucionario. He continued his revolutionary work for socialism throughout his life. Izarra served in the

Senate of Venezuela The Senate of Venezuela was the upper house of Venezuela's legislature under its 1961 constitution. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly of Venezuela. However, since 1999 the former cham ...

from 1998 to 1999 and was appointed 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 ...

to serve in the newly-created position Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asia, the Middle East and Oceania in 2005. In 2021, he served as Venezuela's ambassador to North Korea. William Izarra died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 1 October 2021, at age 74, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela The COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first two cases in Venezuela were confirmed on 13 March 2020; the fi ...

Publications

*''En Busca de la Revolución'' *''El tiempo que nos queda'' *''Momentos de la Revolución'' *''Folletos del Proceso'' *''Cuentos de Fácil Lectura'' *''Los Toques del Clarín''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Izarra, William 1947 births 2021 deaths Academic staff of the Central University of Venezuela Harvard Kennedy School alumni Members of the Senate of Venezuela Ambassadors of Venezuela to North Korea 20th-century Venezuelan politicians 21st-century Venezuelan politicians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela People from Maracay Death in Caracas