Julián Isaías Rodríguez Díaz (16 December 1942 – 12 January 2025) was a Venezuelan politician, diplomat, and lawyer. He was appointed the

vice president of Venezuela The vice president of Venezuela (), officially known as the Executive Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (), is the second highest political position in the government of Venezuela. The vice president is the direct collaborato ...

on 29 January 2000 by

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 ...

, and served in the post until 26 December 2000.

Life and career

Rodríguez Díaz was born on 16 December 1942. VicePresidency of Venezuela
Julián Isaías Rodríguez Díaz
, accessed 4 June 2012 He earned his law degree and specialized in labor law at the

Universidad Central de Venezuela Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

, where he began his political activities with the political party Democratic Action. He left Democratic Action in 1967 together with

Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (14 March 1902 – 22 April 1993), was a Venezuelan politician. A founder of Democratic Action and minister of education in its first government (1947–1948), he was a leader of Democratic Action after the restorati ...

to join the new

Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo The People's Electoral Movement (''Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo'', MEP) is a left-wing political party in Venezuela, founded in 1967 by Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa. The MEP was founded after Prieto Figueroa won the 1967 Acción Democráti ...

, which he participated in until 1981. In 1990 he served as Attorney Aragua. In the elections of November 1998 he was elected to the

Venezuelan Senate 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 cha ...

, representing the state of

Aragua Aragua State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains, jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular beaches are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national par ...

. On 29 January 2000, he was appointed the first executive vice president of Venezuela. Eleven months later, on 26 December, with the majority vote of the National Assembly, he was appointed Attorney General of the Republic, a position he held until November 2007. He was appointed Second Vice-President of the

2017 Constituent National Assembly The Constituent National Assembly (; ANC) was a constituent assembly elected in 2017 to draft a new constitution for Venezuela. Its members were elected in a special 2017 election that was condemned by over forty mostly Latin American and West ...

on 4 August 2017 but he was replaced by Elvis Amoroso a month later. Rodríguez died in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (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 northern p ...

on 12 January 2025, at the age of 82.

Sanctions

In November 2017, Isaías Rodríguez was sanctioned by the United States

Office of Foreign Assets Control The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, United States Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade economic sanctions, ...

after the

2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election Constituent Assembly elections were held in Venezuela on 30 July 2017 to elect the members of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly (; ANC). Unlike the 1999 Constituent National Assembly, which was assembled following a referendum, the 2017 elec ...

. In March 2018, Panama sanctioned 55 public officials, including Isaías Rodríguez. Also a
Panama Economic and Finance Ministry
During 2018 until 2019 he worked as the Venezuelan Ambassador in Italy. During the

2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis The Venezuelan presidential crisis was a political crisis concerning the leadership and the legitimate president of Venezuela between 2019 and 2023, with the nation and the world divided in support for Nicolás Maduro or Juan Guaidó. Venezu ...

, Rodríguez expressed concern for US sanctions on Venezuela. According to him, these sanctions prevented him paying his workers and the Embassy debt had risen to about €9 million. Rodríguez resigned from his job as ambassador in May due to the tight budget of the embassy. In his resignation letter published on Twitter, he expressed support for "Maduro's battle". He wrote that he was left "without money" and that the Italian bank has "closed its doors" to him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Isaias 1942 births 2025 deaths Ambassadors of Venezuela to Italy 20th-century Venezuelan lawyers Democratic Action (Venezuela) politicians People's Electoral Movement (Venezuela) politicians Members of the Senate of Venezuela Vice presidents of Venezuela United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians People from Valle de la Pascua People of the Crisis in Venezuela Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 1999 Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 2017