Venezuela’s feisty new sports minister is not afraid to flash her flesh to win votes… or stab her politician enemies in the back with her Olympic-standard foil
- The 32-year-old was appointed sports minster by President Nicolas Maduro
- Posted topless with a sword in 2008 – photo went viral
- Is a fencing champion and has attended three Olympic Games
She’s made history in becoming Venezuela’s first ever female minister. But Alejandra Benitez’s promise to transform sport in the South American nation is not what’s got her countrymen all excited.
Instead, she’s the talk of the town after a series of saucy snaps she posed for before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were re-published online.
The 32-year-old – who fenced for Venezuela during the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics – was revealed as new President Nicolas Maduro’s sports minister at the weekend.
On Twitter, she wrote: ‘Today starts a new challenge and I will assume that challenge with the same commitment as an athlete who defends his homeland at all costs.’
Already dubbed by Venezuelan media as ‘Maduro’s sexy minister,’ she looks set to be a focal point in the government formed by Hugo Chavez’s successor.
The erotic photographs, published by Sunday magazine Dominical some five years ago, see her posing with nothing but her fencing equipment.
She joined other famous Venezuelans in getting naked for a series called: ‘The Country Strips Down.’
‘Clothes can hide anything,’ she is quoted as saying in the magazine. ‘But when you are naked, you are yourself.’
She released a portfolio of modelling shots in 2010.
‘I want to inspire girls of the neighborhood, that the physical stereotype not only be seen as a sex symbol,’ said Benítez in an interview.
‘Beyond the physical beauty or sexual, I wanted to show an image of purity, feminine tenderness.’
Her official Facebook page is also awash with hundreds of suggestive pictures.
Benitez, a fully-trained dentist married to physical trainer Ricky Diez, will be in charge of providing financial support to sports projects across the country.
Maduro himself explained the appointment on state television by saying: ‘In these processes of refreshment, renewal and re-invigoration, we considered it necessary to designate Alejandra Benitez, world medallist, Olympic competitor, as our new Minister of Sport.’
Born in Antimano, south of the capital Caracas, her ascent to the post of minister has been meteoric with her formal entry to politics only announced two years ago.
It’s led older politicians to say, in private, that Maduro is ‘doing a Berlusconi’ by flanking himself with beautiful women in his cabinet.
The slur is in reference to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio who was often accused of hiring glamorous ministers solely because of their good looks.
Fan
Fan: When competing she was labelled as ‘Chavez’s champion’ and he would reportedly call her with words of encouragement before major tournaments
Opposition politician Miguel Pizarro also believes Benitez is too inexperienced for the job, labelling her ‘a very radical young woman who arrives at a very delicate time.’
But her followers suggest it is this radicalism, as a fervent vocal supporter of former President Chavez, that will ensure she makes a success of the role.
When competing she was labelled as ‘Chavez’s champion’ and he would reportedly call her with words of encouragement before major tournaments.
It led her to be one of a handful of elite sports stars performing a guard of honour for his coffin during his funeral. Others included Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado.
‘Chavez believed in sport and was a sportsman,’ she said in the days following his death. ‘He was a special person that broke boundaries for us. He was the salvation of national sport.’.
Maduro, the hand-picked successor of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, won the April 14 vote by less than 2 percentage points.
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on yesterday he will challenge President Nicolas Maduro’s narrow election victory in the courts and that an audit of the vote being prepared by electoral authorities risked being ‘a joke.’
