José Ignacio Ramón Paliza Nouel (born

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, 1 September 1981) is a politician and lawyer from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. He is the President and Chairman of the Modern Revolutionary Party since 14 June 2018, and Administrative Minister of the Presidency since 16 August 2020. He was senator representing the province of Puerto Plata for the 2016–2020 period.

Early life and family

Paliza Nouel is the son of businessman and

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

of Spain in Puerto Plata, Juan Ignacio Paliza García, and nephew of entrepreneurs José Manuel Paliza and Elena Viyella de Paliza. His grandfather Benito Paliza Torre was a Spanish immigrant who was dedicated to work in the

coffee industry Coffee is a beverage Coffee brew, brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a Stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is ...

upon his arrival to the Dominican Republic. His mother, Grace Malvina Nouel, was born in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, during the period her father was Consul appointed by the dictator

Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( ; ; 24 October 1891 – 30 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (; "the boss"), was a Dominican military officer and dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from August 1930 until Rafael Trujillo#Assassination, ...

for his particular adherence to him; she is the daughter of José María Nouel Simpson (son of lawyer and

minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

José María Nouel Bobadilla, son of historian, lawyer and legislator Carlos Rafael Nouel Pierret and brother of archbishop and president of the Dominican Republic Adolfo Alejandro Nouel Bobadilla, and Grace Simpson Neumann, the daughter of Thomas Simpson, the United States consul in Puerto Plata from 1884 to 1905), and Ligia Malvina Henríquez Mon. On his mother's side, he descends from President

Tomás Bobadilla Tomás Bobadilla y Briones (March 30, 1785 – December 21, 1871) was a writer, intellectual, and politician from the Dominican Republic. The first ruler of the Dominican Republic, he had significant participation in the movement for Dominic ...

, the first ruler of the Dominican Republic; Paliza Nouel is great-grandnephew of ''

monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

'' Adolfo Alejandro Nouel. In 2003, he earned a doctorate in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

(

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

), at

Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) Universidad Iberoamericana (also known as UNIBE) is a private nonprofit coeducational university in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Ca ...

; he studied ''International Studies of Law'', ''Business and Public Policy'', and ''Public Finance Management'', at Georgetown,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and

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

, respectively..

Ancestry

Paliza's maternal family was a notable elite family in the Dominican Republic. His ancestors includes Presidents, Senators, Ministers and Consuls.

Politics

He was elected with just 28 years as a deputy to the 2010–2016 legislature, and was the youngest member of the

Congress of the Dominican Republic The Congress of the Dominican Republic () is the bicameral legislature of the government of the Dominican Republic, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Both senators and deputies are chosen through direct election. T ...

. In his 2010 sworn statement of assets, Paliza stated that he had a

negative equity Negative equity is a deficit of owner's equity, occurring when the value of an asset used to secure a loan is less than the outstanding balance on the loan. In the United States, assets (particularly real estate, whose loans are mortgages) with ...

, as he owed RD$ 5 million (US$ 135,000) to his father (who died in 2014). In 2016 he reported to have RD$ 13.38 million (US$ 291,000) in assets. In 2020, Paliza's net worth rose to RD$ 23.08 million (US$ 395,000). In August 2014, along with more than thirty deputies defectors he entered into the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), following a split in the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). Paliza was elected President and Chairman of the Modern Revolutionary Party in the primary elections held on 18 March 2018, he took office on 14 June 2018.

References

External links