Vilma Reyes Escalante

Antoinette Vilma Reyes Escalante is a dentist and former Honduran politician. In 1998, she became the mayor of Tegucigalpa^[1] and held the position for four years; during this time she was involved in a political scandal over the embezzlement of public funds.

Vilma was born in Santa Bárbara to a large family of eight children who relocated to Tegucigalpa in the 1970s: There she spent her childhood, attended college, and met her husband, Cesar Castellanos Madrid. Cesar had strong political aspirations which eventually led to him being elected mayor of the Central District of Honduras in 1997; this post was taken over by his wife in 1998 after his untimely death in a helicopter crash and she presided in this role until 2002.^[2]

Vilma's involvement as mayor included the creation of a project called El Vaso de Leche, which was aimed at alleviating the suffering of poor children living in the slums of Honduras. In 1999 she met with Marisabel Rodriguez, the wife of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez: Rodriguez donated several million bolivars to the project but a later investigation concluded that this money was never handed over to those who needed it. Escalante claimed that the money had been misappropriated by the private secretary in charge of the company responsible for distributing it. She was indicted for the crime of embezzlement of public funds but has never appeared in court to face those charges. None of these accusations seemed to harm her political career. Vilma was elected a deputy of the National Congress of Honduras from 2006 to 2010, and she has represented Honduras in the Central American parliament.

Since her retirement from political life, Vilma Reyes Escalante now resides in Houston, Texas.

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