Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez

Marisabel Rodríguez
First Lady of Venezuela
In office 1999 – 2002
Preceded by	Alicia Pietri de Caldera
Succeeded by	None
Born	November 23, 1964(1964-11-23) Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela
Nationality	Venezuela
Political party	PODEMOS
Spouse(s)	Allessandro Perez Hugo Chávez (Divorced) Felix Garcia (Divorced)
Children	Alfonzo Ramírez Rodríguez Rosinés Chávez Rodríguez
Residence	Barquisimeto
Profession	Journalist
Religion	Roman Catholic

Marisabel Rodríguez Oropeza (born 23 November 1964) is a Venezuelan journalist, publicist and radio announcer. She is best known for having been the second wife of current Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

Biography

Rodríguez was born in Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela, South America.

In 1999, Rodríguez was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly, in the process which wrote the present constitution of Venezuela. She was elected with the second highest margin in the elections. She was then elected president of the Constituent Social Rights Commission and president of Fundación del Niño, a state-funded organization that works helping and supporting children throughout the country. For almost two decades, Marisabel has been working in the area of social communications, especially public relations and as editor of the social section of El Impulso, one of the most important journals in midwest Venezuela.

Rodríguez is an announcer and radio producer. She produced a magazine for children, "El Club de los Exploradores". She has anchored for television stations including Telecentro and Niños Cantores Televisión in her hometown of Barquisimeto. She has also produced the informative radio program "Líder en la Noticia".

In 2007, she publicly denounced the constitutional reforms proposed by her ex-husband, Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela.^{[citation needed]}

Death threat

In 2008 Chavez supporters denounced a supposed plan to kill Rodriguez in order to create national outrage in Venezuela and destabilize the Chavez regime. A delegate from the government party named Gerson Pérez accused parliament members Luis Tascón and Ismael García, along a supposed paramilitaries and American-looking people in a "secret reunion". Pérez accused Tascón of being a counterrevolutionary and a traitor. Tascón defended himself from the accusations and said that he was being unjustly accused because of his recent denunciation of corruption in the Chávez regime. Garcia denied all charges and accused the government of trying to set up "smoke curtains" to hide the problems of the Chávez regime and its policies. García called for the protection of Rodríguez which since she had received death threat the government had done nothing, García also called for the protection of both himself and Tascón.

Marisabel Rodriguez Oropeza was a candidate for the regional elections in Venezuela, running in the mayoral race for the Iribarren Municipality in Barquisimeto, where she was born. She lost by a substantial margin.[1] She was one of the two options against the national government, which had another female candidate, Amalia Sáez. She said she was looking for a third way against Chavez, and that she represents neither the policies of the government representative nor those of the opposition.

Rodriguez in numerous occasions has stated that her ex-husband Hugo Chávez is way far from the original revolutionary process.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Venezuela
• Hugo Chávez
• Presidents of Venezuela

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