Irene Sáez
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| Irene Sáez Beauty pageant titleholder |
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| Birth name: | Irene Lailin Sáez Conde |
| Birthdate: | December 13, 1961 |
| Birth location: | Caracas, Venezuela |
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Eye color: | Hazel |
| Hair color: | Blonde |
| Title(s): | Miss Venezuela 1981 Miss Universe 1981 |
Irene Lailin Sáez Conde (born 13 December 1961 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a former Venezuelan politician and also a former Miss Universe.
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[edit] Pageants
Sáez was crowned Miss Venezuela 1981 winning with 305 votes. She was also Queen of Club Campestre Los Cortijos for three years in a row.
Sáez was crowned Miss Universe 1981 at the 30th annual pageant in New York City at the age of 19.
[edit] Political career
In the early 1990s Sáez served two terms as the mayor of Chacao, one of the five municipalities that make up Caracas, and gained notoriety by modernizing the municipal administration, raising its efficiency to an unprecedented (and still unsurpassed) level, at par with any modern private enterprise. She was the first Mayor of Chacao elected by popular vote. Previously all mayors were chosen by the Governor of Caracas.
In 1997, she formed the Integrated Representation of New Hope (IRENE) party as a launching pad for her run in the 1998 elections. For a while, she shocked the Venezuelan political establishment when she led in opinion polls in the race for president and was the most popular politician in the early days of the race. She ran on a platform to end corruption, reducing bureaucracy and refinancing the public debt.
Sáez's political campaign, however, began to falter by mid 1998 for several reasons. Her decision to ally herself with two other political parties, COPEI and Democratic Action, along with some poorly executed television interviews, as well as the growing popularity of Hugo Chávez, all combined to result in her tumble from the top of the polls.
Eventually, in the December 1998 election she finished a distant third with 2.8% of the vote.
From 1999 to 2000, she served as governor of the state of Nueva Esparta, but stepped down when she became pregnant, denying rumors that she was pushed aside by Chávez. [1]
[edit] Post-political private life
Sáez got married and had a son (born in 2000), and later moved to the United States to live in Miami, Florida/ In 2003 she was named to the board of directors of the Colonial BancGroup, south Florida region. [2] She later got a divorce.
[edit] External links
- Analysis of the political career of Irene Sáez.
- 'Beautiful Venezuelans' (in Spanish)
- You Tube: Final Miss Venezuela 1981
- You Tube: Miss Universe 1981 Coronation
- You Tube: Irene Sáez Conde MU 81 special award
- Sáez as Governor (Margarita Island) - BusinessWeek Online, Oct. 18, 1999 issue
| Preceded by Shawn Weatherly |
Miss Universe 1981 |
Succeeded by Karen Baldwin |
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