Political Career
Arria resigned as head of CONAHOTU in order to support the presidential candidacy of Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP) in 1973. Shortly after CAP was elected in March 1974, he appointed Arria Governor of the Federal District (Caracas), at a time when this was one of the most important presidential appointments. In 1976 when he was Governor of the Federal District he went to Chile and asked President Pinochet to release his friend Orlando Letelier; which Pinochet did, but soon after this Letelier was murdered with a car bomb in Washington D.C by Pinochet's order. He subsequently moved from the governorship to become Minister of Information and Tourism in February 1977. He resigned on 17 March 1978, in order to stand as an independent candidate in the Venezuelan presidential election, 1978; he came fourth with 1.7% of the votes. As part of his campaign Arria initiated the launch of the daily newspaper El Diario de Caracas.
In 2012 Arria was a candidate for the presidential nomination of the Coalition for Democratic Unity for the Venezuelan presidential election, 2012. Primary elections were held on February 12, 2012, with Henrique Capriles Radonski winning the nomination.
Read more about this topic: Diego Arria
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“Power-worship blurs political judgement because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)