People Profile, Jacqueline Faría, Venezuela
Jacqueline Faría - Venezuela
Who is she? Vice president of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) for the states of Zulia and Falcón and, until April 2009, the president of a state firm, Movilnet.
On 13 April 2009 she was personally chosen by President Hugo Chávez to become the first head of government of the Caracas Capital District, a new city authority that will controversially assume much of the resources and power of the elected mayor of Greater Caracas, a post won by the opposition's Antonio Ledezma in the most recent regional elections in November 2008.
The new head of government for Caracas will principally govern the Libertador municipality (pop 2m) which corresponds to the main Caracas city area and is the biggest of the five Caracas districts. It is also the only one that remained in the hands of the PSUV after the municipal elections in November.
Ledezma's office will remain, but he will only exercise the function of a coordinating body for the four smaller municipalities of Caracas: Chacao, El Hatillo, Sucre and Baruta, all opposition-run.
Why watch her? With her controversial appointment, Faría becomes the face of the president's latest manoeuvres to usurp elected opposition figures. The opposition claims the president is acting unconstitutionally and is striking at decentralisation and institutional autonomy.
Education: Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). Faría graduated as a civil engineer, specialising in hydraulic engineering. Her career has focused on city water supplies, sanitation and the environment.
Public Life:
Her early career as an
administrator quickly gave way to more political role as a Chavista civil
servant. Faría first came to public prominence in 1999 as the
head of the Caracas city waterworks company Hidrocapital, before being
appointed as environment minister in January 2005.
Early on Faría was a signed up member of the Chávez -allied leftwing group, Patria para Todos (PPT). Like other PPT members, she subsequently became a PSUV member. The president has marginalised non-conforming PPT members.
Timeline:
Pre-1999:
Faría spent her early career at the National Institute of Public Sanitation,
where she headed the underground wells division. She was also manager of the Caracas
metropolitan aqueduct and was director for the provision of works
and services for the Mayor of Libertador.
1999-2005: Director of the state-run Caracas waterworks company, Hidrocapital, where she boosted a project of technical table rounds for water, sewerage and drainage services in the program of Urban Improvement in Caracas low-income areas.
January 2005- January 2007: Minister of the Environment. In 2006, set up the project to purify the Guaire River, which serves Caracas. The project is due to be completed in 2014.
February 2007-May-2007: Member of the Liaison Committee between the US firm Verizon and the Chávez government during the nationalization of the telecoms firm Cantv.
May 2007-April 2008: President of Movilnet, Cantv's mobile arm.
As president of Movilnet, Faria oversaw strong growth. With a focus on providing cheap phones and accessible tariffs to low income subscribers, Movilnet is the second biggest mobile firm in Venezuela by subscriber numbers, with 41.5% of the market, vying closely for top position with Movistar (owned by Spain's Telefónica), which has an estimated 42% market share. She began Movilnet's migration to 3G technology, although the process has not been without difficulties and Movilnet has lagged behind the country's other operators (Movistar and Digicel) in this respect. Some local opposition press reports have suggested Faria was not a hands-on manager (allegedly routinely failing to attend key meetings) and was unpopular during her time at Movilnet.
2008: Vice president of the PSUV in the states of Zulia and Falcón. In the November 2008 regional elections, the opposition won the state of Zulia and took the mayoralty of the state capital Maracaibo from the PSUV.
April 2009: Head of Government, Caracas district.
Strengths: Faría is a proven and loyal Chávez civil servant, who has had a well defined career path. Her early stints working on behalf of the Caracas city authorities mean that she is familiar with the local government structure and is well aware of the issues on the ground.
She successfully transferred Hidrocapital from the central government back to the local Caracas authorities and later oversaw the negotiations for the transfer of Cantv back to state hands, for which she was rewarded with the presidency of Movilnet.
Her supporters cite her efficiency and good management skills and her ability to get the job done. The president clearly sees her as a capable and reliable pair of hands.
Faría defended her appointment to run Caracas in terms of the need to assure control over the downturn area of Caracas, described by the government as a 'sensitive risk area' on the grounds it is the seat of most public institutions and is near to the seat of government.
She also said she would work to improve the delivery of essential services to the city, including low income housing, under the auspices of the 'Socialist Caracas' project.
Weaknesses:
The opposition is deeply
suspicious of Faría ever since her stance over the 'Tascón List' in 2004, when,
as the president of Hidrocapital, she appeared on national television to
deny that company employees had been dismissed for signing a
petition (to recall the president via referendum).
Faria admitted that she was aware of who signed the petition, "because the list was made public," but, at the time, insisted that "there is no sanction in this regard."
"I do know who they are, and I do want to change their minds," she declared. "I have to show them how wonderful Hugo Chávez 's administration is."
That opposition has recently dragged up that statement as evidence that Faría is not to be trusted and that, much like Chávez , she does not brook political opposition.
Indeed, when the local press asked her how it felt to take over from the mayor of Greater Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, who was elected with over 700,000 votes in November, she quipped that “the finger[s] of Chávez are the fingers of the people, their fingers want the best for Caracas".
Prospects: With the clear support of the president, and 90% of the resources previously meant for Ledezma, Faría's political position is unassailable for now.
Although a political appointee, she will still have to deliver in Caracas, where the public services are notoriously poor. Her attitude towards the opposition municipalities, with whom she must work, will tell much about her much vaunted management skills and leadership abilities.
A successful tenure in Caracas would leave her well placed in the PSUV ahead of congressional elections in 2011 and the presidential vote in 2012.