Miguel Pizarro

Miguel Alejandro Pizarro Rodríguez is a Venezuelan politician and human‑rights activist who has become one of the most vocal members of the National Assembly, representing the densely populated parish of Petare in Miranda since his first election in 2010. Born on 17 February 1988 in Petare, Miranda, he spent his early childhood in the state of Táchira before his family returned to the Caracas‑area barrio 24 de Julio, where he grew up listening to punk music and even playing in the band Kolumpio. From the age of thirteen he was already immersed in political activism, inspired by a family tradition that included a father who had fought as a left‑wing militia member and a mother who co‑founded a committee defending political prisoners. His teenage years were marked by a commitment to anarchist ideas, especially the writings of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin, which led him to create the anti‑militarist movement “Ni casco ni uniforme” and to be expelled from his Franciscan school for protesting compulsory military education. In 2007 Pizarro emerged as a student leader at the Central University of Venezuela, joining the massive protests against the closure of RCTV and the Chávez‑backed constitutional referendum, alongside future opposition figures such as Juan Guaidó and Freddy Guevara. After the 2010 parliamentary elections, at only twenty‑one, he entered the National Assembly as the alternate deputy for the second district of Táchira, later securing a full seat for the third district of Miranda with 64.9 % of the vote in 2015. During his tenure he has authored and promoted landmark legislation, including the Organic Law on Sports, the Law for the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Equality for people living with HIV/AIDS, and several social welfare measures such as the Food and Medicine Bond for pensioners. As president of the Commission for Social Development in 2016, he championed laws protecting school meals, autism spectrum disorders, and food security for the elderly. Pizarro has also been a relentless defender of human rights, advocating for the families of political detainees, demanding accountability for the 2014 murder of fellow deputy Robert Serra, and speaking out against the Maduro government while rejecting any endorsement of violent protest. His outspoken criticism of the Assembly’s inefficiency and his calls for tangible results have made him a polarizing yet essential figure in Venezuela’s contemporary opposition landscape.