María Soledad Núñez Méndez (born 9 April 1983) is a Paraguayan civil engineer and politician. She was the candidate for

vice president of Paraguay The vice president of Paraguay is the person with the second highest position in the executive branch of the Paraguayan government, after the president of Paraguay. The position of vice president was created with the Constitution of 1844, althou ...

for the

Concertación The Concertación, officially the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia ( en, Coalition of Parties for Democracy), was a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988. Presidential candidates under its banner won ...

political alliance in the 2023 general elections as the running mate of

Efraín Alegre Pedro Efraín Alegre Sasiain (born 18 January 1963) is a Paraguayan politician. He was the President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1999 to 2000. From August 2008 to June 2011, he served as the Minister of Public Works and Communications in t ...

, losing to both

Santiago Peña Santiago Peña Palacios (; born 16 November 1978) is a Paraguayan politician and economist who is the president-elect of Paraguay following the 2023 general election. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Para ...

and

Pedro Alliana Pedro Lorenzo Alliana Rodríguez (born 19 February 1974) is a Paraguayan politician, currently serving as President of the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay since 2019 and President of the Colorado Party since 2016. Early life Alliana was ...

of the Colorado Party in an electoral landslide. She previously served as executive secretary of the National Secretariat of Housing and Habitat of Paraguay from 2014 to 2018.

Biography

Núñez was born in Asunción, Paraguay, on 9 April 1983. She was raised in the General Díaz neighborhood of the city and spent a large part of her childhood in the Chaco region along with her grandfather, a veteran of the

Chaco War The Chaco War ( es, link=no, Guerra del Chaco, gn, Cháko Ñorairõ She studied civil engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción, National University of Asunción (UNA) and she later began her professional career in the private sector. In 2008, she obtained a master's degree in Management and Integrated Management of Construction Projects and Real Estate Assets at the Technical University of Madrid and the following year she became director of the Latin American NGO TECHO in Paraguay, a position she held until 2013. Also in those years, she was invited to integrate ''ad honorem'' the first National Country Strategy Team, an initiative of the Paraguayan government to organize a plan to reduce poverty in the country. In 2014, she received a scholarship at the Georgetown University School of Business.

Political career

Minister

In 2014, she participated in the creation of the National Open Government Plan and on October 1 of that year she was appointed Minister of the National Secretariat of Housing and Habitat (Senavitat) of her country until 2018, being one of the youngest female ministers in the country's history. During her tenure, the National Habitat Committee was created. In 2015 she was elected president of the Assembly of Ministers of Housing and Urban Development for Latin America and the Caribbean. The figures of the previous administrations added up to 1,000 homes built, but she left a portfolio with 37,000 homes: 30,000 finished (or with more than 95% progress) and 7,000 in progress. The total investment for her period is around 2.5 billion Paraguayan guaraní, guaraníes. After leaving office, in 2019 she did her second master's degree in Public Policy at the University of Oxford and was part of a program in Leadership and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2020, during the quarantine declared as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Paraguay, COVID-19 pandemic, he joined the Settlement Support Network. She also founded the NGO Alma Cívica, of which she was the executive director. Núñez is the academic director of the Diploma in Public Policy at the UCOM University, member of the team of the dialogue initiative "Paraguay Ahora"”, and is part of the Board of Directors of the NGO Enseña por Paraguay (Teach for all) and the advisory board of Roof Paraguay.

2023 general election

In May 2022, Núñez presented her presidential candidacy for the Concertación (Paraguay), National Concertation to compete in the 2023 Paraguayan general election, 2023 general election. In August of that same year, however, she declined her presidential aspirations to be

's vice-presidential candidate.

Personal life

Nunez is a Catholic. She married Bruno Raúl Defelippe Díaz de Espada in 2020. In 2002, Defelippe, 18, was physically assaulted by former president Juan Carlos Wasmosy when the former criticized the latter for his management as president. Defelippe unsuccessfully ran for Senate of Paraguay, National Senator for the National Encounter Party in the 2023 general elections, together with his wife's candidacy for vice presidency.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Núñez, Soledad 1983 births Living people People from Asunción Paraguayan Roman Catholics Harvard Kennedy School alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni Universidad Nacional de Asunción alumni Paraguayan women in politics 21st-century Paraguayan women politicians 21st-century Paraguayan politicians Women government ministers of Paraguay