Blanca Rosa Eekhout Gómez (born 6 January 1968) is a

Venezuelan Venezuelans (Spanish language, Spanish: ''venezolanos'') are the Citizenship, citizens identified with the country of Venezuela. This connection may be through citizenship, descent or cultural. For most Venezuelans, many or all of these connect ...

politician who has been

Minister for Women and Gender Equality The minister for women and gender equality () is the minister of the Crown responsible for the Department for Women and Gender Equality. The minister is a member of the King's Privy Council for Canada and the Canadian Cabinet. Rechie Valdez has ...

since 2016. She was Minister of Communication and Information between 2009 and 2010, and held the position of Second Vice President of 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 repr ...

during the 2011-2015 legislative period. She has also been president of VTV and

ViVe Vive may refer to: *Vive, viva, and vivat, a Romance language expression * ''Vive'' (José José album), 1974 * ''Vive'' (Lucía Méndez album), 2004 *Vive (a cappella group) Vive was a six-part a cappella group from England, United Kingdom. ...

, and was a cofounder of

Catia TVe Catia TVe (Televisora Comunitaria del Oeste) is a Venezuelan television channel, created and administered by the residents of Catia, a major neighborhood in the capital city of Caracas. Seventy percent of its programming is created by community o ...

in 2001.

Biography

Eekhout attended José Antonio Páez High School in her hometown of

Acarigua Acarigua (), founded as San Miguel de Acarigua in 1620, is a city in northwestern Venezuela, in the northern part of the state of Portuguesa (state), Portuguesa and its former capital. It encompasses the Páez municipality. It is a major commerc ...

, and graduated from the

Central University of Venezuela Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

with a Bachelor of Arts specialized in cinema. She was arrested in 1989 for instigating lootings during the

Caracazo The ''Caracazo'' is the name given to the wave of protests, riots, and looting. that started on 27 February 1989 in the Venezuelan city of Guarenas, spreading to Caracas and surrounding towns following austerity measures from President Carlos A ...

. She entered the

United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (, PSUV, ) is a Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivar ...

(PSUV), becoming close to president

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

. She replaced

Jesse Chacón Jesse Alonso Chacón Escamillo (born 9 November 1965) is a Venezuelan politician, engineer, and former military officer. Chacón participated in the November 1992 coup attempt the second attempted coup of that year, when he took part in the occu ...

as Minister of Communication and Information from 16 April 2009 until 2010. In 2010, she was elected by her party to lead the candidacy in the

Portuguesa state Portuguesa State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. Located in the west of the Republic, it is often considered the "breadbasket of Venezuela" for the large amount of agricultural products produced there. The state is ...

for the 2010 parliamentary elections, where she was elected as deputy. After holding her seat in 2011, she was designated as Second Vice President of the Assembly until January 2015. She is the national coordinator of the

Great Patriotic Pole The Simón Bolívar Great Patriotic Pole (, GPPSB), or just the Great Patriotic Pole (, GPP), is a left-wing socialist and Chavista electoral alliance/ popular front of Venezuelan political parties created in 2012 to support the re-election of ...

and sectorial vice president of Alliances and Social Movements of the PSUV. In 2016 she was named as Minister for Women and Gender Equality.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eekhout, Blanca 1968 births 21st-century Venezuelan women politicians 21st-century Venezuelan politicians United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians Women government ministers of Venezuela Women members of the National Assembly (Venezuela) Members of the National Assembly (Venezuela) People from Acarigua Venezuelan people of Dutch descent Central University of Venezuela alumni Living people Communications ministers of Venezuela Information ministers of Venezuela Hugo Chávez ministers