Alfredo Antonio Peña (13 April 1944 – 6 September 2016) was a Venezuelan journalist and politician.

Journalism career

He studied journalism 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 L ...

and became well known after he was hired as the director of the newspaper '' El Nacional''. He also hosted his own

interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

program on the

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

Venevisión Venevisión () is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros. History The company's roots date back to June 1, 1953, with the establish ...

, in which he severely criticized the two dominant

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

of the second half of the twentieth century in Venezuela, AD and COPEI. His late-night TV program faced harsh criticism over its main theme and it changed names from "Conversaciones con Alfredo Peña" to a more aggressive "Los Peñonazos de Peña". During this time he suffered several attempts on his life, one of them occurring in his apartment, presumably not only to kill him but to destroy his computer and

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

. In 1998 he supported the candidacy of

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 ...

for the Presidency of Venezuela, and invited Chávez to his program in several occasions.

Political career

In 1999, Peña quit his television program and became one of the prominent members of 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 ...

. President Chávez named him Minister of the Secretary of the Presidency. Peña was later elected to the finance committee of the 1999 Constituent Assembly, becoming its chairman. The Assembly wrote the 1999

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 ...

. In July 2000, following the

2000 Venezuelan regional elections The Venezuelan regional elections, 2000 took place on 30 July 2000, alongside the 2000 Venezuelan parliamentary election and 2000 Venezuelan presidential election. The regional elections were for Venezuelan state governorships and mayorships. Th ...

, he became the first Mayor of Caracas (Alcaldía Mayor de Caracas, a position that replaced the

Venezuelan Federal District The Capital District ( es, Distrito Capital) is a federal district of Venezuela. It has an area of 433 km2 and there is only one administrative division (''municipio''), Libertador Bolivarian Municipality, Libertador, which contains about hal ...

) for the Fifth Republic Movement after winning the elections by a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

. His nomination for Mayor by the Fifth Republic Movement created division within the party, as

Aristóbulo Istúriz Aristóbulo Istúriz Almeida (20 December 1946 – 27 April 2021) was a Venezuelan politician and academic who was vice president of the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela in August 2017; he was also the vice president of Venezuela from January 2 ...

, chair of the party

Patria Para Todos Fatherland for All (''Patria Para Todos'', PPT) is a leftist political party in Venezuela. It was founded on September 27, 1997 by members of The Radical Cause party led by Pablo Medina, Aristóbulo Istúriz and Alí Rodríguez Araque. In 199 ...

, also wanted the position. Patria Para Todos then abandoned the coalition with the Fifth Republic Movement, only to join it again 18 months later. In 2001 Peña instituted the ''Bratton Plan'' (by

William Bratton William Joseph Bratton CBE (born October 6, 1947) is an American law enforcement officer and businessman who served two terms as the New York City Police Commissioner (1994–1996 and 2014–2016). He previously served as the Commissioner of th ...

) to modernize the Metropolitan Police. In October 2004, shortly before the new mayoral elections, Peña withdrew from the race, alleging national government fraud. In 2005 Peña was thought to be in Miami, with the Venezuelan government asking for extradition for alleged irregularities relating to the Bratton contract. In 2007 a Venezuelan court ordered his arrest, and in 2009 Venezuela applied to

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

for assistance in bringing Peña before the court. In 2005 he was also accused by a Venezuelan court of responsibility for some of the deaths during the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, some of which Metropolitan Police, under Peña's supervision, were held responsible for. ''

EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major multimedia news agency in Spanish language and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was created in 1939 ...

'', 8 January 2005
El ex alcalde mayor de Caracas Alfredo Peña será procesado por la Fiscalía
/ref> He died on 6 September 2016 in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pena, Alfredo 1944 births 2016 deaths Central University of Venezuela alumni People from Barquisimeto Fifth Republic Movement politicians Mayors of places in Venezuela Venezuelan exiles Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 1999