Alí Rodríguez Araque

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Alí Rodríguez (in the center) with the presidents of Venezuela Hugo Chávez (left) and Peru Alejandro Toledo (right)

Alí Rodríguez Araque (born in Ejido, Mérida, 1937^[1]) is a Venezuelan politician, lawyer, and diplomat. He is the leader of the party Patria Para Todos ("Motherland For All") and has occupied various positions in the government of Hugo Chávez, such as oil advisor, general secretary of OPEC, president of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Minister of External Relations and, most recently, ambassador in Cuba.

[edit] Career

He received his legal certificaton from Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas in 1961. He studied economics, specialising in crude oil^{[citation needed]}; he has written several works about the energy sector.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1960s and early 1970s, he was active in the Marxist guerrilla movement operating in Venezuela.^{[citation needed]} He was known as "Commander Fausto", allegedly acting as an explosives expert. He was one of the last guerrilla fighters to put down arms, after the so called "appeasement" policy (Pacificación) signaled the end of the armed insurgency.^{[citation needed]} He was pardoned and became involved in parliamentary politics, and was elected to the then National Congress.^{[citation needed]} He acquired a reputation as a negotiator and consensus seeker.^{[citation needed]} He was minister of energy of Venezuela from 1999, when Chávez took office, until 2000.

In 2000 he was elected secretary-general of OPEC and served from January 2001 to July 2002. He then became president of Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), where he masterminded the firing of more than 20,000 workers as a retaliation for a failed strike. He remained in that position until November 2004 when Chávez appointed him foreign minister in a cabinet reshuffle. On September 1, 2006, Rodríguez was appointed ambassador of Venezuela to Havana, Cuba.^[2]