Ventura Pérez Mariño
Ventura José Pérez Mariño (born 29 December 1949) is a Spanish judge and former Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician. He was a member of the Congress of Deputies from 1993 to 1995, and a city councillor in Vigo from 2003 to 2005, serving as mayor for the first few weeks of his tenure.
![](../I/Ventura_P%C3%A9rez_Mari%C3%B1o_en_2004.jpg.webp)
Biography
Pérez Mariño was a judge in the Audiencia Nacional. In May 1993, he was voluntarily removed from the judiciary so that he could contest the general election.[1] He was elected as the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party's (PSOE) list leader in Lugo. He and fellow magistrate Baltasar Garzón were persuaded into politics by PSOE prime minister Felipe González in order to give the party a moral image after scandals. Both became fiercely critical of González when it was revealed that his government had been covertly arming the anti-ETA paramilitary GAL in the 1980s. Garzón returned to his court to investigate the matter and in February 1995, Pérez Mariño resigned after publicly calling for González to do the same.[2]
In April 2002, Pérez Mariño returned to the PSOE to be their mayoral candidate in the following year's local elections in his hometown of Vigo. He was endorsed by party leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.[3] While the People's Party (PP) took 10 seats and his party took 8, his party formed a coalition with the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) and he was installed as mayor. In December, following disputes with the BNG leader Lois Pérez Castrillo, he was voted out in a motion of no confidence that made PP leader Corina Porro the new mayor. He quit his council seat and left politics for good in July 2005 for "strictly personal" reasons, returning to the judiciary; his party and the BNG then resumed their pact.[4]
In August 2021, Pérez Mariño was hospitalised after nearly drowning at the beach in Aldán.[5]
References
- "REAL DECRETO 628/1993, de 2 de mayo, por el que se declara en la situación administrativa de excedencia voluntaria en la Carrera Judicial al Magistrado don Ventura Pérez Mariño" [ROYAL DECREE 628/1993, of 2 May, by which the voluntary leave from the Judicial Career of the Magistrate Don Ventura Pérez Mariño is declared] (PDF) (in Spanish). Boletín Oficial del Estado. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- Tremlett, Giles (9 February 1995). "Socialist deputy asks Gonzalez to resign". United Press International. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- Díez, Anabel (15 April 2002). "El PSOE recupera a Pérez Mariño para luchar por la alcaldía de Vigo" [PSOE recover Pérez Mariño to fight for the mayoralty of Vigo]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- "PSG [sic] y BNG se unen para recuperar Vigo" [PSdeG and BNG unite to recover Vigo]. El Periódico de Aragón (in Spanish). 6 July 2005. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- "Rescatan con síntomas de ahogamiento en la playa de Aldán al exalcalde de Vigo Ventura Pérez Mariño" [Former mayor of Vigo Ventura Pérez Mariño rescued with symptoms of drowning from Aldán beach]. Faro de Vigo (in Spanish). 5 August 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2022.