Angelica Rivera

**Angelica Eshter Rivera**, formerly **Angelica** **Salamander**, (September 14, 1991 -) was a Libirachi politician and diplomat who served as president of the Imperial Cabinet from October 7, 2040 onwards. Between March 13, 2038 and October 7, 2040, Rivera served as Vice President of the Libirachi Empire to President Karyn Voor. As well as this, Rivera served in several ministerial positions, including in the role of Foreign Secretary from October 7, 2035 until October 2040, and as Minister of War between May 25, 2034 and October 7, 2035. Between 2010 and 2033, Rivera was the spouse of former President Damien Salamander, before divorcing after the toppling of her then-husband's regime during the 2033 COMPNOR self coup d'état.

Serving alongside her then-husband during his presidency between 2023 and 2033, Angelica Salamander took up a *de-facto* role equivalent to the position of vice president and became the prime diplomat of the Libirachi Empire, serving as a key member of the Ministry of Defence during Salamander's presidency, as well as joining Damien Salamander on foreign trips abroad and internal ones at home. Following the Wahngso Crisis in 2026, Salamander began to take a reduced role in Libirachi politics owing to her closeness with Xi Jimping, although with the 2027 Global Banking Crisis Salamander was brought back to serve as a negotiator for the formation of the Sino-Scandinavian Development Fund alongside the Avalonian prime minister Jennifer Friedrickson. As a split began to emerge between President Damien Salamander and Empress Penny Fox, Angela Salamander began to recced from public view again, accepting a posting to the embassy in Avalonia rather than being forced to pick a side in the brewing political conflict. With Salamander's removal from office in the 2033 Libirachi Coup d'état and the subsequent election, Angelica divorced the now Duke of Beijing and instead took up a position within the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order to continue working for the regime of the new President Karyn Voor. As the Conquest of Africa broke out in 2033, Rivera began to work on the negotiations forming the United Front allies, until in 2034 following the 2034 Libirachi Army Purge she was offered the title of Minister of War, her husband's former role within government.

After the 2035 Presidential Election, Angelica Rivera was appointed as the Libirachi foreign secretary in the second cabinet of President Karyn Voor and assumed responsibility for the war effort against the Bovido Imperium, with her duties as Minister of War merged into her new portfolio. As the main architect of the Invasion of Jerusalem State, Rivera was also responsible for coordinating the effort to install former Persian president Geena Kulmuni as the Secretary General of the Shanghai Pact, and in 2036 was responsible for negotiating the Treaty of Beijing with the Bovido Imperium and the Shanghai Pact, though the treaty ultimately fell through after a deliberate effort by Rivera to destabilise the Imperium through the treaty. Further significant achievements as foreign secretary include the negotiated dissolution of the North African Federation in August 2037 and the creation of an alliance between the Shanghai Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation with the intention of defeating the Bovido Imperium. Following the resignation of President Karyn Voor as the general secretary of the Revolutionary party on March 13, 2038, Angelica Rivera was appointed leader of the party and subsequently elected as vice president of the Imperial Cabinet, making her the formal deputy to President Voor and first in line to the presidency, as well as the first person to occupy the position since 1933. With the conclusion of the Conquest of Africa, Angelica Rivera became responsible for overseeing the government's installation of puppet regimes across Africa, and made numerous state visits in her official vice presidential capacity. In 2039, Rivera was a presiding officer of the 20th Anniversary of the New Order celebrations. In October 2040, President Voor stood down as head of government, allowing Angelica Rivera to be elected as president of the Imperial Cabinet on October 7, 2040.

During her presidency, Rivera oversaw the implementation of several controversial political reforms, including the implementation of proportional representation for the Libirachi National Congress, the dissolution of the Administrative Zone, and the devolution of powers to regional assemblies. Whilst all major elements of Rivera's reform package passed through congress largely unchallenged, the policy platform led to a major split within the governing Libirachi Revolutionary Party between reformists and conservatives, and prompted vice president Damien Rightly to resign from office in February 2042. The subsequent rise of Rightly's Coalition for Progress, growing questions of legitimacy, and lack of control over all factions of her party led Rivera to call snap elections in August 2042, which resulted in the loss of her parliamentary majority.

## Political Career

 **President of the Libirachi Empire****Presidency**Angelica Rivera CabinetAdministrative Zone Dissolution Act of 2041 • Electoral Renewal Act of 2042

 **Vice President of the Libirachi Empire****Vice Presidency**Libirachi Revolutionary Party • Operation Invincible • Operation Safeguard • Treaty of Kampala • 20th Anniversary of the New Order

 **Ministerial Career**
**Minister for War** • **Foreign Secretary**2034 Libirachi Army Purge • Conquest of Africa • Invasion of Jerusalem State • Treaty of Beijing • Operation Invincible • Operation Safeguard • Treaty of Kampala

 **Electoral History**2035 Libirachi National Congress Election • 2038 Vice Presidential Election • 2040 Libirachi National Congress Election • 2040 Presidential Election

Working within the Ministry of Defence at the same time as her husband Damien Salamander, the two quickly climbed the ranks together during the Presidency of Nathan Jackson before in 2019 securing a post within the Libirachi Embassy in Makassar, Bovido Has, upon the 2019 Libirachi Coup d'état toppling President Jackson. In the aftermath of the Assassination of Hazael Buller in 2020, Salamander was withdrawn from the nation and in 2023 with Damien Salamander's assent to the Presidency in the midst of the Libirachi Civil War, she began to work as the chief international ambassador within the foreign office of Minister Xi Jimping, working alongside the former president and forming a close friendship with Xi, until the formation of the Damien Salamander II Cabinet in 2025 meant that Xi was demoted in favour of Xiao Chen.

Following the Wahngso Crisis in 2026, Salamander began to take a reduced role in Libirachi politics owing to her closeness with Xi Jimping, although with the 2027 Global Banking Crisis Salamander was brought back to serve as a negotiator for the formation of the Sino-Scandinavian Development Fund alongside the Avalonian prime minister Jennifer Friedrickson. As a split began to emerge between President Damien Salamander and Empress Penny Fox, Angela Salamander began to recced from public view again, accepting a posting to the embassy in Avalonia rather than being forced to pick a side in the brewing political conflict. With Salamander's removal from office in the 2033 Libirachi Coup d'état and the subsequent election, Angelica divorced the now Duke of Beijing and instead took up a position within the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order to continue working for the regime of the new President Karyn Voor. As the Conquest of Africa broke out in 2033, Rivera began to work on the negotiations forming the United Front allies, until in 2034 following the 2034 Libirachi Army Purge she was offered the title of Minister of War, her husband's former role within government, after the purge and execution of Alexander Fowle. Alongside the position of Minister of War, Angelica Rivera was raised to membership of the Libirachi National Congress in order to provide accountability for her new portfolio.

## Foreign Secretary

Taking over as Foreign Secretary of the Libirachi Empire from Xiao Chen in the midst of the Conquest of Africa after the formation of President Karyn Voor's second cabinet in 2035, Angelica Rivera immediately became responsible for leading the empire's international campaign to destroy the Bovido Imperium. During her term as Minister of War, Rivera had helped negotiate the creation of the Shanghai Pact and in her capacity as Foreign Secretary, Rivera helped orchestrate Geena Kulmuni's appointment as General Secretary of the pact after the 2034-35 Persian Constitutional Crisis had seen Kulmuni removed from her post as president of Persia. In December 2035, Angelica Rivera was forced to deny Libirachi involvement in the attempted assassination of Jean Bagasauo, covering up a botched attempt by the Imperial Security Bureau to kill the leader of the North African Federation, proclaiming that the Federation's rhetoric "would lead only to war" in a speech to the assembled leaders of the Shanghai Pact at the organisation's leadership conference on December 20, 2035. Following the 2036 Bovido Coup d'état, Angelica Rivera was placed in charge of the Libirachi Empire's negotiating team which ultimately produced the Treaty of Beijing, of which Rivera was the Libirachi signatory - however, the treaty only further caused internal disunity within the Bovido Imperium, causing it to renege on commitments outlined in the treaty and providing the Libirachi Empire with a legitimate reason to continue it's invasion of the Imperium; this has led some historians to argue that Rivera's true purpose at the negotiations was to engineer a continuation of the war to weaken the Bovido forces and allow the Libirachi armies to destroy the nation in combat.

Following the resumption of war between the Libirachi Empire and the Bovido Imperium in August 2036, Angelica Rivera made the symbolic gesture of signing a letter to Bovido imperator Julios Cragen to formally declare that combat hostilities between the two states would be resuming with the launch of Operation Invincible. During the North African Federation's descent into political crisis, Rivera helped negotiate Shanghai Pact support for the People's Democratic Union for Self Government separatist group, and following the 2037 North African Coup d'état the Libirachi foreign ministry formally recognised the claims of both the Patriotic National Military Administration and the self-declared Free Republic of Southern Sahara. With the collapse of the Federation in June 2037 after a brief civil war, Angelica Rivera became the leader of a negotiation team to devise a surrender agreement from the North African Federation and it's successor states; on August 11, 2037, Rivera became one of the signatories of the Treaty of Kampala, which outlined the process for the dissolution of the North African Federation and the establishment of the North African Authority to oversee the transition into successor states.

## Vice Presidency

 President

Following President Karyn Voor's decision to resign from the role of general secretary of the Libirachi Revolutionary Party on March 13, 2038, foreign secretary Angelica Rivera was elected as leader by the party's senior leadership; with the government coalition now being led by two separate individuals, President Voor tabled a motion in the Libirachi National Congress to elect Rivera to the formerly defunct position of vice president, which passed 2371-609. As such, Angelica Rivera was appointed as vice president, becoming the first holder of the office since 1933 and formalising her position as the deputy to President Voor.

In February 2039, Vice President Angelica Rivera was present at a celebratory gala in Brussels to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Morra; during the gala, Morranian president Sunil Bakshi as assassinated, and Rivera became the first senior politician of any state to meet with newly inaugurated Morranian president Kairos Hemlock.

Following the Shanghai Pact's victory during the Conquest of Africa in 2039, the dissolution of the Bovido Imperium, and the installation of numerous puppet states across Africa, President Karyn Voor openly announced the start of a presidential transition of power and a decision to step down as president at the next election in October 2040, though Voor retained her role as head of COMPNOR and it's political branch. As part of this move, in March 2038 Angelica Rivera was elected as the head of the Libirachi Revolutionary Party, whilst being appointed to the newly resurrected title of vice president. As head of the Revolutionary party, Rivera gained significant political credential as a likely candidate for the presidency in 2040, further solidified by her leading role in the end of the Conquest of Africa.

On October 1, 2040, elections for the 32nd Libirachi National Congress were held across the country, with the Revolutionary party managing to gain the most seats, though not enough for an outright majority. With the Revolutionary party as the largest party in the new congress, Vice President Angelica Rivera travelled to Persia from October 2nd-4th to meet with President Hassen Ahmed to set out shared policies between the two allies. On October 5, President Voor and Vice President Rivera announced a coalition agreement between their two respective political parties. During the first session of the new 32rd National Congress, Chairwoman Eleija Longwood presided over the election of Angelica Rivera and Damien Rightly as president and vice president respectively; as part of the 2025 Libirachi constitution, the election of the president is undertaken by the Libirachi National Congress and thus officers of the executive branch are limited to members of congress, as are members of cabinet.

## Presidency

Following her election as president by the 32nd Libirachi National Congress on October 7, 2040, Angelica Rivera was appointed as president of the Fox Dynasty by Empress Penny Fox the same evening after a meeting at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Upon her appointment as president, Rivera assembled a new cabinet with a coalition between the Libirachi Revolutionary Party and the COMPNOR Political Bureau.

### Cabinet

Following the independence of Japan and Malaya on August 17, 2041, president Angelica Rivera conducted a small cabinet reshuffle to transfer some powers of the Minister for Occupied Territories to the newly created post of Minister for the Libirachi Commonwealth; additionally, the position of chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order became a full member of cabinet as the Secretary of State for the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, allowing Rivera to bring her key ally Karyn Voor back into government. Rivera's promotion of more progressive figures within the National Congress sparked tension with the moderate and conservative factions led by vice president Damien Rightly, who was reported to have threatened to resign over the dismissal of his ally finance secretary Avar Kriss and the decision to strip powers from foreign secretary Lee Jae-myung by establishing new ministerial positions.

After the passing of the Electoral Renewal Act of 2042, vice president Damien Rightly resigned from cabinet in protest against the implementation of proportional representation. With Rightly's resignation, President Angelica Rivera utilised executive powers to appoint Lauren Salamander as acting vice president of the Imperial Cabinet until an election for the office could be held; subsequently, Rivera carried out a mini reshuffle of her cabinet, replacing Salamander as minister for the commonwealth with Edirne governor Estaban Occon.

### Constitutional reforms of 2041-42

#### Dissolution of the Administrative Zone

Upon assuming office in October 2040, President Rivera formed a series of congressional constitutional committees with the intention of increasing the size of the legislative branch, introducing 300 proportionally elected congresspeople, and removing the ban on regional parties achieving national representation. Similarly, in January 2041, secretary of state Lina Kassan introduced legislation into the congress that would dissolve the Libirachi Administrative Zone and replace it with a series of semi-independent commonwealths with representatives of the Libirachi empress as their head of state, akin to the constitutional arrangement of the Commonwealth of Greater Ruthenia; however, these plans were later stripped back after a second reading in March 2041 to integrate the mainland Asian territories into the Fox Dynasty as constituent regions, whilst the island territories would be given independence under a commonwealth system. On August 17, 2041, the Administrative Zone Dissolution Act of 2041 passed the Libirachi National Congress and entered into law, dissolving the Administrative Zone and abolishing the position of Governor of the Administrative Zone; in its place, the Commonwealth of Japan and the Commonwealth of Malaya were established to govern the former territory, each with local politicians as leaders acting on behalf of the Libirachi throne.

#### Electoral reform

As a core part of President Angelica Rivera's planned constitutional reforms, in December 2040 the Rivera administration launched a congressional commission into a more proportional restructuring of the Libirachi National Congress under the leadership of former foreign secretary Xiao Chen. After a series of meetings between Rivera, Xiao, Empress Penny Fox, and LNC chairwoman Eleija Longwood in early 2041, the congressional executive voted to back Rivera's proposals and Empress Fox was rumoured to supported the concept, though no public statement was given. In September 2041, details of the proposals were announced to the wider public by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Under the plans, a tiered system of proportionality would be introduced to the existing electoral process, so that the Libirachi National Congress would be both proportional and retain the regional systems of governance - dubbed Libirachi Proportionality, a single general election ballot under the scheme would simultaneously elect four different legislatures. In order to ensure the efficient running of the system, ballots for town councils would then be pooled with votes from across a region to elect regional congresses, and then be added to a wider pool of votes for elections to sector congresses, before finally all votes would be aggregated into a national total and proportionally elect the Libirachi National Congress. At the same time as the introduction of the new voting system, Rivera's proposed reforms also permitted the formation of political parties outside of the United Front of government controlled opposition parties, which would allow the formation of a proper sanctioned opposition party for the first time since 1950. Despite an element of opposition from factions of the Libirachi Revolutionary Party and from the leadership of the United Front, Rivera's reforms passed congress as the Electoral Renewal Act of 2042 on February 18, 2042 after a 1858-1032 vote in the Libirachi National Congress, and entered into law the same day after receiving royal assent. Following the passing of the act, vice president Damien Rightly tendered his resignation from government on February 21, 2042 in protest against the disruption of the existing constitutional order and returned to the backbenches of the Libirachi National Congress.

## Gallery

Angelica RiveraVice President Angelica RiveraRivera in 2035Angelica Rivera with Nicholas Azure in 2035Angelica Rivera with her then-husband Damien Salamander in 2030President Salamander and Angelica Rivera arrive in LondonDamien and Angelica Salamander in 2029