Blanca Ibanez

Blanca Alida Ibáñez Piña (San Cristóbal, August 17, 1947) is a Venezuelan politician, widow of former President Jaime Lusinchi.

Biography

She is the daughter of María del Rosario Piña and Carlos Julio Ibáñez. At a very young age, she moved with her mother to Caracas, as a single mother of two children, where she carried out different trades as a worker. She obtains a secretarial position in the Chamber of Deputies of the National Congress, working for the parliamentary fraction of the Acción Democrática party, whose Fraction Leader was the then deputy Jaime Lusinchi. She later became the sentimental partner of Lusinchi, who in the 1983 presidential elections would be elected President of the Republic for the period 1984-1989.

When Jaime Lusinchi's government began in February 1984, she was appointed private secretary of the Presidency, a new position created for her. This election unleashed many negative reactions in public opinion, making her a controversial character. As a private secretary, she exercised great influence in the government, and became involved in alleged acts of corruption. In May 1986, a public square in a Caracas neighborhood was named after her, which sparked a political controversy that forced her to face serious questions, including the ability to control access to the president at her pleasure and convenience., as well as a desire for prominence and an avidity that allowed him to wield a high degree of presidential power.

In 1994 she was tried, along with several former ministers, for diverting public money to a political campaign; for which she was sentenced to a year in prison that she did not serve when she found herself in exile in Costa Rica.A survey carried out by the company Gaither S.A. in 1988, he gave him 60% support to be proposed as a deputy to the National Congress, which was rejected by the leaders of the Acción Democrática party.^{[citation required]} Obtains, controversially, his law degree from the Santa María University, but he did not get to practice the profession in Venezuela.

In 1998 she was tried for corruption but the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela acquitted her, due to the prescription of the crime. Other politicians involved in the case were José Ángel Ciliberto and Jorge Mogna Salazar.After Lusinchi's presidency, she lived in the United States for a long time. Ibáñez married the former president in New York City on September 11, 1991. In the United States, she created the extinct foundation Women in Action , to denounce sexual abuse against women.

Since 1992, after being granted asylum, she has lived in Costa Rica, where she served as vice president of Canal CB24 until her disappearance. She also exercises the administrative management of the CELAC Foundation created by former President Lusinchi. ^{[citation needed ]}