Vladimir Villegas

Vladimir Villegas Poljak (born 11 December 1961 ) is a Venezuelan journalist and politician. He was President of Venezolana de Televisión from late 2003 to December 2004. He has written regularly for El Nacional and El Mundo, with a weekly column in El Nacional. He is a founder of the Avanzada Progresista party, having previously been a supporter of Patria Para Todos.

Early life Villegas is the son of Cruz Villegas, head union communist, confined to the Amazon jungle during the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, and former president of the United Workers of Venezuela (CUTV) and vice president of the World Federation of Trade Unions. His mother, Maja Poljak was a Jewish Communist social activist and photographer born in Zagreb, Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia.

He is the brother of the journalist and politician Ernesto Villegas, Minister of Communication and Information since October 2012.

Education While attending the Central University of Venezuela, Villegas was a leader of the Communist Party of Venezuela, and he began his journalistic career at the Party's Tribuna Popular. and was re-elected in the 1998 elections. In 2006 he was named deputy Foreign Minister for Asia, the Middle East and Oceania; he resigned in 2007 over disagreements regarding the 2007 constitutional referendum. Villegas ultimately declined the position citing "differences" with the newly created board of directors.