Jack Veneno

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Jack Veneno (born Rafael Sanchez in San José de Ocoa, Dominican Republic) is a famous Dominican wrestler who worked for many years on Colorvision channel 9 during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, on a wrestling show called Lucha Libre Internacional. He was the main star of the show as well as the owner of the production company Dominicana de Espectaculos. He is also a former NWA World Heavwyweight Champion, although his title reign is not officially recognized by the NWA. Outside the Dominican Republic, he is famous for his matches against Ric Flair. Flair said that he let Veneno defeat him in order to avoid a riot among the Dominicans against him.

Jack Veneno, although retired from wrestling, is currently an aspiring politician. He ran for Mayor of Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic, on the 2006 Congressional and Municipal Elections. He is not highly favored to win, ranking in third place in official polls conducted by the Gallup group. He is running behind:
1) Roberto Salcedo (incumbent) and
2) Alfredo Pacheco.

Veneno is a candidate for the BISD party, a political party founded in 1989 by the late Dominican politician José Francisco Peña Gómez, who died in 1998. The BISD party received approximately 100,000 votes in the last presidential election in 2004, in a country of 8,950,000 people, 3.613 million voted in total.

In campaign material and in press appearances, he uses his well known wrestling name, Jack Veneno (Spanish for poison) instead of his real name, Rafael Sanchez.