Tarek Saab
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the Venezuelan politician, see The Apprentice (U.S. season 5)The Apprentice (U.S. season 5)The Apprentice 5 is the fifth series of The Apprentice, with Donald Trump as the Executive Producer and Host. Applications were available online and filming occurred in the fall of 2005. Sean Yazbeck was named the winner and hired by Donald Trump as the new Apprentice during the season finale...
for the Apprentice candidate Tarek Saab.
Tarek William Saab Halabi (born 1963) is a Lebanese-Venezuelan politician, lawyer and poet. He is a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activist and a leader of the Fifth Republic Movement
Fifth Republic Movement
The Fifth Republic Movement was a left-wing, Socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the candidacy of Hugo Chávez, the current President of Venezuela, in the Venezuelan presidential...
(MVR) party founded by Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
, President of Venezuela. He has been the Governor of Anzoátegui
Anzoátegui
Anzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors. Its coast consists of a single beach approximately 100 km long...
since 2004.
Background
The son of LebaneseLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
immigrants, Saab was born in El Tigre
El Tigre
El Tigre is a city in the eastern Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui. This city is the shire town of the Simón Rodríguez Municipality and, according to the 2001 Venezuelan census, the municipality has a population of 147,800.-History:...
, Anzoátegui
Anzoátegui
Anzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors. Its coast consists of a single beach approximately 100 km long...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. He studied criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
at the Universidad Santa María
Universidad Santa María (Caracas)
Universidad Santa María is a private university in Venezuela. USM has campuses in several cities, such as Caracas , Puerto La Cruz, Barinas and Puerto Ayacucho....
and human rights law at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Career
Saab was a member of the Constitutional Assembly1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela
The 1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela was a constitutional convention held in Venezuela in 1999 to draft a new Constitution of Venezuela. The Assembly was endorsed by a referendum in April 1999 which enabled Constituent Assembly elections in July 1999...
that drafted in 1999 the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Constitution of Venezuela
||The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the current and twenty-sixth constitution of Venezuela. It was drafted in mid-1999 by a constitutional assembly that had been created by popular referendum. Adopted in December 1999, it replaced the 1961 Constitution - the longest...
. In 2000, he was elected a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly.
During the coup d'état of April 2002
Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002
The Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 was a failed coup d'état on 11 April 2002 that saw President Hugo Chávez ousted from office for 47 hours, being restored by a combination of military force and mass demonstration of popular support...
, Saab was imprisoned by security forces after a crowd of coupists had gathered around Saab's home, threatening him and his family. He was held incommunicado for several hours.
While Saab was head of the foreign policy commission of Venezuela's National Assembly in 2002, he was refused an entry visa to the United States. Reuters reported that Saab told local television he was denied the visa because a U.S. State Department report "identified him as 'an individual linked to international subversion'." According to Venezuela's El Universal, Saab gave a press conference, in which he referred to published information that he had been denied the visa as a consequence of his ties with international terrorist organizations. Saab denied that he was associated with international terrorism or subversive groups.
Governor of Anzoátegui
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Saab was elected Governor of Anzoátegui in the Venezuelan regional elections, 2004
Venezuelan regional elections, 2004
The Venezuelan regional elections, 2004 took place on 31 October 2004.Candidates supporting Hugo Chavez won 21 out of the 23 governorships, as well as the metropolitan Caracas government. Wins included the opposition strongholds of Carabobo and Miranda. In addition, pro-government candidates won...
, and re-elected in 2008
Venezuelan regional elections, 2008
The regional elections of Venezuela were held on Sunday, 23 November 2008, to choose22 governors, 2 metropolitan mayors, 328 mayors and 251 aldermen for a four-year term . These were the first elections to be held since incumbent President Hugo Chávez founded the PSUV.In these elections, 17,308...
.
In 2005 Saab was accused by critics within his own party (MVR) of participating in electoral fraud in the primary election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s for 2005 local elections. His predecessor as governor of Anzoátegui, David de Lima, accused Saab of using his position for political persecution, after Saab's wife accused De Lima of mismanagement.
Books
Saab has written several literary works in SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, among them: Los ríos de la Ira (1987), El Hacha de los Santos (1992), Príncipe de Lluvia y Duelo (1992), Al Fatah (México, 1994), Angel Caído Angel (1998), Cielo a Media Asta (2003), Cuando Pasen las Carretas (2003).