Carmen Meléndez

Carmen Teresa Meléndez Rivas (born 3 November 1961) is a Venezuelan politician and Navy admiral. She was Minister of Interior and Justice from 25 October 2014 to 9 March 2015, and Chief of Staff in President Nicolás Maduro's cabinet for nearly six months from March to September 2015.

Political career
Meléndez was the Deputy Minister of Education of the Ministry of Defense. On July 3, 2012, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, promoted her to the rank of Vice Admiral. Melendez was the first Venezuelan woman to receive this distinction in after being named Commander of General Staff of the Bolivarian Armed Forces. On 13 October, she was named Minister of People's Power of the Office by President Hugo Chavez and confirmed by national decree on 15 October. On 21 April 2013, during a national radio and television, she was reaffirmed as Minister of Management the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela for the government of Nicolas Maduro. On 3 July 2013 the president of the republic amounts to admiral in chief and July 5, 2013 the appointed Minister of Defense, the first woman to hold both charges in the history of Venezuela.

Sanctions
On 9 August 2017, the United States Department of the Treasury placed sanctions on Meléndez for her position in the 2017 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela where she is tasked with the street government command.

Months later on 22 September 2017, Canada sanctioned Meléndez due to alleged "rupture of Venezuela's constitutional order."

On 29 March 2018, Meléndez was sanctioned by the Panamanian government for her alleged involvement with "money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction".