Nicolás Maduro Moros
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela
Incumbent
Assumed office August 2006
President	Hugo Chávez
Preceded by	Alí Rodríguez Araque
Personal details
Born	November 23, 1962 Caracas

Nicolás Maduro Moros (born 23 November 1962 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan politician who was appointed foreign minister by President Hugo Chávez on 9 August 2006.^[1]

Biography[link]

Nicolas Maduro began his political career as a bus driver and unofficial trade-unionist representing the workers of the Caracas Metro system in the 1970s and 1980s (back then, unions within the Metro company were not allowed). He finished high school in the Liceo Avalos, a public high-school west of Caracas during the '80 (El Valle neighborhood), but lacks any university or further education. He is considered one of the founders of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), but his biggest political accomplishment was as activist for the release of Hugo Chávez from prison, and later as one of this regional political coordinators during the 1998 presidential race. Maduro was elected on the MVR ticket to the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies in 1998, to the National Constituent Assembly in 1999, and to the National Assembly in 2000 and 2005, representing the Capital District. The legislature elected him Speaker of the Assembly, even though he did not have a college degree or formal education. He held that position from 2005 until the first half of 2006.^[2] Maduro is married to Cilia Flores,^[3] herself a prominent figure within the MVR. She replaced Maduro as Speaker of assembly.^[4]

In January 2009, Israel ordered the Venezuelan ambassador and his staff to leave the country after Venezuela expelled Israeli diplomats over Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Maduro stated, with regard to Israel's expelling of the Venezuelan ambassador, that "The response of the State of Israel is weak, late and in any case for us it's an honor. We're proud that the State of Israel that exists today, led by these criminals, made this decision."^[5]

On September 2006, he was detained by the Homeland Security officers at JFK Airport, after paying for three air tickets in cash.^[6]

On the 15th of December 2011, it was reported in El Universal that President Hugo Chavez wished to make Maduro, the PSUV candidate in the state of Carabobo for governor, which is currently held by the opposition MUD.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ministerio del Poder Popular para Relaciones Exteriores (Venezuelan Foreign Ministry)
• Nicolás Maduro Moros, Ministro del Poder Popular para Relaciones Exteriores (government CV)

Juan Salas (born November 17, 1978 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a professional baseball relief pitcher who is currently a free agent. Salas signed with Tampa Bay on July 8, 1998, as an amateur free agent, and made his Major League debut September 5, 2006.

Salas is notable for being converted from playing third base to pitching while in the Devil Rays' minor league system. Salas became a pitcher in the 2004 season and had a 1-0 record and 4.82 ERA for the Rookie-Level Princeton Devil Rays. He split the 2005 season between the High-A Visalia Oaks and the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits.

The 2006 season was the breakout year in Salas' minor-league career; he gave up no earned runs in 23 games for Montgomery, earned 14 saves, and struck out 52 batters in 34 2/3 innings. This earned him an appearance in the 2006 All-Star Futures Game for the World Team. He was called up to the Triple-A Durham Bulls, with whom he went 1-1 with a 1.57 ERA and three saves in 27 games, striking out 33 batters in 28 2/3 innings. The Devil Rays then called him up to help out their bullpen; he made eight appearances with Tampa Bay in the 2006 season and won a roster spot out of spring training with the Devil Rays in 2007. In 2007, he went 1-1 with a 3.95 ERA in 12 games and was suspended in May for 50 games for using performance-enhancing drugs.^[2][3] To take his place on the roster, the Devil Rays recalled Tim Corcoran from Durham.

Salas started the 2008 season on the restricted list due to problems obtaining a visa to come to the United States. He missed spring training and did not arrive in the United States until April 17, 2008, several weeks after the 2008 MLB season started. He reported to the Triple-A Durham Bulls for a rehab assignment beginning May 9.^[4]

On February 12, 2009, Salas was designated for assignment. He was traded to the Cleveland Indians on February 19, 2009 for minor league infielder Isaias Valasquez. He was released on May 6.

See also[link]

• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Baseball-Almanac.com
• Salas' question answered by BaseballAmerica.com
• Inside The Dugout Futures Game discussion

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)

Carlos Alberto Montaner (born 1943) is an exiled Cuban author and journalist of Afro-Cuban descent known for his more than 25 books and thousand of articles, including several novels, the last of which is La mujer del coronel, The colonel's wife. Some of his books are devoted to explain the true nature of the Cuban dictatorship, for example: JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF CUBA. PODER magazine has estimated that more than six million readers have access to his weekly columns. He has been published widely in Latin American newspapers, and published fiction and non-fiction books on Latin America. Since 1968 he has had a syndicated weekly column in many newspapers around the world '. Montaner is a political analyst for CNN in Spanish. Miami Herald.

Background[link]

Montaner was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1943, and is a nephew of the very popular and well-loved Afro-Cuban music-hall singer, Rita Montaner, colorfully and popularly known in her native Cuba simply as 'Rita de Cuba' in her heyday. Carlos Alberto Montaner's father, Ernesto Montaner, also became well known as a popular poet of sorts and was very well received locally in Miami, Florida as a 'poet-in-exile' during the early years following the Socialist Revolution headed by Fidel Castro Ruz in 1959. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Montaner still at an immature age along with others identified then as counter-revolutionaries were imprisoned by the Cuban government on charges of participating in terrorist attacks that led to notable civilian casualties and on charges of working with the CIA. (Note: On numerous occasions after fleeing Cuba, Montaner has emphatically tried to deny charges that he has been a terrorist or has worked for the CIA, arguing that these are calumnies spread by the Cuban intelligence through such means as WikiPedia. The texts in which Montaner denies these accusations can be found in www.firmaspress.com and www.elblogdemontaner.com, CIA) ^[1] Soon after his arrest on charges of terrorist activities, he managed to escape from prison and fled Cuba permanently.^[2] In 1970 he relocated to Spain from the United States. In 2007 the government of the Comunidad de Madrid awarded the Prize for Tolerance to Montaner, a distinction that is awarded to those who have fought for the freedom and respect for human rights. ^[3]

Career[link]

After taking a master's degree at the University of Miami, Montaner taught American literature at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico from 1966 to 1970. During those years he published four books: Los combatientes (1968), Galdós humorista (1969), Póker de brujas (1970), and Instantáneas al borde del abismo (1970). The last two were also published in English.

Montaner began his career in journalism in 1968, working with Joaquín Maurín, a Spanish exile who had founded the American Literary Agency in New York at the end of the 1940s with the objective of disseminating democratic ideas in the United States and Latin America. Maurín was a noted Marxist theorist whose thinking had evolved toward liberal democracy after the Spanish Civil War.

Montaner began writing a weekly column which was soon appearing in almost every Latin American country, often in the most widely read newspapers. He also came to be much in demand as a lecturer throughout the hemisphere, speaking about the defense of liberty, economic development, and the important role of culture in the evolution of societies.

1970s[link]

By 1970, his success as a columnist and speaker had made it possible for him to move on from teaching to a life in Madrid dedicated to his columns and books. He established a publishing house, Editorial Playor, in 1972. His first novel, Perromundo, was published in 1972 and subsequently was made into a movie. His Informe secreto sobre la revolución cubana was published in 1975, and was followed a year later by 200 años de gringos, celebrating the bicentennial of the United States and contrasting the evolution of the United States with that of Latin America. This contrast between the levels of development north and south of the Rio Grande and the reasons for it would occupy much of his attention thereafter.

As Spain moved rapidly toward democracy after the death of Franco, he joined the Liberal Club of Madrid.

1980s[link]

In the 1980s, Montaner began a weekly television commentary that was aired by satellite throughout Latin America. He also produced three books: Fidel Castro y la revolución cubana, subsequently published in English, Italian, and Russian; La agonía de América; and 1898: La trama.

In 1980 he received the ABC prize for journalism, awarded by the then Spanish premier Adolfo Suárez. By then, his columns were being published in a number of newspapers in the United States, and the Miami Herald invited him to join its editorial board.^[4] He also edited the opinion page of El Nuevo Herald between 1987 and 1989.

1990s[link]

In 1990, comments Montaner made on the television show Portada on the Univision network were perceived as offensive to Puerto Ricans. The president of Univision, Mr. Joaquin Blaya, supported Montaner, who explained his comment in an article later published in Wall Street Journal. ^[5] The controversy resulted in El Diario La Prensa dropping Montaner as a weekly columnist.^[5]

In 1992, the Liberal International named Montaner a vice president. These activities brought him into contact with many of the world's leaders. During the first half of the 1990s, the magazines Ciencia Política of Bogotá and Perfiles Liberales of Mexico City invited him to join their editorial boards, and Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal sporadically began to publish his columns. Montaner produced three books during this period: Cómo y por qué cayó el comuunismo; Libertad, la clave de la prosperidad; and Cuba hoy: la lenta muerte del castrismo. He was also named a visiting professor en universities in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Perú.

The best-selling Manual del Perfecto Idiota Latinoamericano, in which he collaborated with Álvaro Vargas Llosa and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, was published in 1996 and in English in 2000 by Madison Books. Its highly popular sequel, Fabricantes de miseria, was published in 1998. Montaner also authored No perdamos también el siglo XXI (1997) and, in 1999, Viaje al corazón de Cuba.

In 1999, in Madrid, Montaner received the Premio de Periodismo de la Fundación Independiente and the Medalla de la Cultura de Puerto Rico. In the same year he was the recipient of a Premio América award by the de Centro Interamericano Gerencia Política with the inscription, "His writings on freedom have served as a guide to the oppressed and to the emerging democracies."

2000s[link]

In 2004 he was invited by The Miami Herald to be part of its Editorial Board. Since then his weekly columns are published in English.

Other books were Las raíces torcidas de América Latina (2002), América Latina y la cultura occidental (2004) and La libertad y sus enemigos (2005), all dealing with the roots of Latin America poverty and underdevelopment. In 2006 Brickell Communicatios Group produced a series of 13 lessons on Cuban history for TV written and narrated by Montaner and also published a book with the scripts - Los Cubanos: historia de Cuba en una lección.

In 2007 two more books were published, Las columnas de la libertad and El regreso del idiota, the latter written with Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza and Álvaro Vargas Llosa.

In March and April 2010, Montaner and Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez had a "compelling exchange of letters on Cuba".^[6]

In March, 2011, Ernesto Angel Montaner, Carlos Alberto Montaner's brother, was arrested for Medicare fraud and is currently in the Federal Detention Center in Miami, Florida. ^[7]

Carlos Alberto Montaner has made no public comments to date regarding Ernesto Angel Montaner's illegal business activities or his subsequent arrest by U.S. Federal authorities.

Montaner has an honorary doctoral degree from the Universidad Francisco Marroquín.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Carlos Montaner's Official Site
• Audiovisual Media, NewMedia Universidad Francisco Marroquín
• Honorary Doctoral Degrees, Universidad Francisco Marroquín