Alfonso Velez
| Alfonso Velez | |
 Alfonso Velez, file photo from 1673 AN. | |
 Who's Who of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Alfonso Velez |
| Titles & Offices |
Prime Minister of Alduria (1672 AN-1682 AN) Leader of the Liberty and Democracy Party Member of Parliament of Alduria |
| Birth Date | 21.IV.1642 AN |
| Birth Place |
 Valladares, Alduria |
| Death Date | 9.IX.1730 AN |
| Death Place |
Punta Santiago, Alduria |
| Education | Business |
| Occupation |
|
| Political Affiliation | Liberty and Democracy Party |
| Known For | Prime Minister of the Republic of Alduria; founder of 4Hire and Velez Investments |
| Residence | Punta Santiago, Alduria |
| National Origin |
Alduria |
| Citizenship(s) |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie |
Alfonso Velez (21.IV.1642 AN - 9.IX.1730 AN) was an Aldurian statesman and businessman who served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Alduria from 1672 AN to 1682 AN. A self-made businessman and the founder and leader of the Liberty and Democracy Party, he was an openly gay public figure and an advocate of civil liberties through the decades between Alduria's founding and its union with the Wechua Nation.
Early life and business
Velez was born on 21.IV.1642 AN in Valladares, one of the island territories of Alduria, to a working-class family. His father died when Alfonso was twelve, and the family fell into poverty. He took his first job at fifteen and worked his way to a business degree, then founded 4Hire, an application for casual and odd-job labor. After surviving two near-bankruptcies and securing a large outside investor, the venture succeeded, and Velez was a multimillionaire before he was twenty. He went on to build the holding company Velez Investments, and entered public life as a wealthy, self-made outsider with a deep distrust of the established political class.
Political career
Velez was elected a Member of Parliament for the Liberty and Democracy Party, a libertarian and classical-liberal party he came to lead. He campaigned on free trade, lower taxation, deregulation, the privatization of state industry, and a strong defense of personal civil liberties, and clashed often with the purists of his own party over how far its principles should bend to govern.
He became Prime Minister of the Republic of Alduria in 1672 AN, succeeding Natalia Cotilla of the National-Liberal Alliance, and was returned again in 1678 AN, governing at the head of a Liberty and Democracy coalition under Presidents Alejandro Campos and, later, Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz, whom he had recruited to stand for the presidency. His government drew heavy criticism for its silence during a wave of Zurvanite attacks on Nazarene churches in 1680 AN and 1681 AN, and the coalition broke late in 1681 AN when Marco Zimmer's Democratic Socialists withdrew over guns and public services. The early elections that followed in 1682 AN ended his premiership, and Zimmer formed a government in his place. Velez remained in Parliament as Leader of the Opposition.
The union and later life
Velez lived to see the Republic of Alduria he had governed give way in 1685 AN to the Alduro-Wechua Federation, the union with the Wechua Nation from which the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie grew. He withdrew from front-line politics in his later years, tending his business interests and lending his name to the civil-liberties and gay-rights causes he had championed throughout his career.
He died of a heart attack in Punta Santiago on 9.IX.1730 AN, at the age of eighty-eight.
Personal life
Velez was openly gay and never married, and did not conceal it during his career. He cultivated a public image as a playboy that drew both admiration and criticism at home and abroad, and he was an early advocate for the civil rights of gay and minority citizens.
Late in life he adopted a son, Alfonso Rivas, who was raised in Punta Santiago and kept the surname of his birth family rather than take the Velez name. The younger Rivas made his own way into public life, entering the Federal Assembly for the Federal Consensus Party and, in 1760 AN, becoming a Special Counselor to the Council of State under the Federal Accord.
