Topic: Manuel Rosales

Manuel Antonio Rosales Guerrero (b. December 12, 1952, in Santa Bárbara del Zulia) is a Venezuelan educator and politician and was the most prominent opposition candidate in the 2006 presidential election, losing to incumbent Hugo Chávez. He served as a congressman, mayor, and governor, but in April 2009, stepped down as Mayor of Maracaibo when he was charged with corruption in Venezuela and fled to Peru. Rosales denies the charges, and was granted political asylum in Peru.

Rosales began his political career as a youth leader of the political party, Acción Democrática (AD), described by the BBC as "one of the two parties that dominated Venezuelan politics for most of the second half of the 20th Century". In 2000 he founded "his own centre-left party which he called Un Nuevo Tiempo" (A New Era); he describes "himself as a social democrat".

Rosales served as a congressman in the Zulia Legislative Assembly (1983–1994), Mayor of Maracaibo (1996–2000)—Venezuela's second-largest city, in Zulia, Venezuela's wealthiest state—and Governor of Zulia for two terms (2000–2004 and 2004–2008).