| spouse = Leonel Fernández (m. 2003{{cite web|title=Margarita Cedeño Lizardo|url=http://vicepresidencia.gob.do/vice/margarita-cedeno-de-lizardo/|website=Vicepresidencia de la República Dominicana|accessdate=20 July 2014|language=Spanish|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727225212/http://vicepresidencia.gob.do/vice/margarita-cedeno-de-lizardo/|archivedate=27 July 2014}}–div. 2022{{cite web|url=https://hoy.com.do/por-sentencia-margarita-y-leonel-oficialmente-divorciados/ |title=Es oficial: Margarita Cedeño y Leonel Fernández se divorcian|work=Hoy|date=7 March 2022|access-date=20 April 2022}})

| father = Luis Emilio Cedeño Matos (1925–2018){{cite news |title=Muere padre de Vice presidenta Margarita Cedeño |url=http://www.lajornadadigital.do/muere-padre-de-vice-presidenta-margarita-cedeno/ |accessdate=3 July 2018 |publisher=La Jornada de Santo Domingo |date=3 July 2018 |location=Santo Domingo Este, Dominican Republic |language=Spanish}})

| mother = Angela Margarita Lizardo Olivares

| children = * Ramón Emil Fiorentino

Gabriela Angelissa Fiorentino
Yolanda América María Fernández

| residence =

| alma_mater = Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (LLB)
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (M.A.)
University of Salamanca (M.A.)

| occupation = Philanthropist, politician

| profession = Lawyer

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| website = https://margarita.do

| footnotes =

}}

Margarita María Cedeño Lizardo, formerly known as Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, is a Dominican politician who served as Vice President of the Dominican Republic from 2012 to 2020. She was married to former president, Leonel Fernández and served as the First Lady of the Dominican Republic from 2004 to 2012.

Early and personal life

Cedeño was born on 1 May 1965 in Santo Domingo to Luis Emilio Cedeño Matos and Angela Margarita Lizardo Olivares. She worked with local law firms in the Dominican Republic, among which the law firm of Doctor Abel Rodríguez del Orbe and Fernández y Asociados, where she is an associate member.{{cite web|url=http://rsta.pucmm.edu.do/biblioteca/html/dominicanos2/margarita/biografia.htm|title=Biografia|publisher=PUCMM|accessdate=2012-08-16|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320153322/http://rsta.pucmm.edu.do/biblioteca/html/dominicanos2/margarita/biografia.htm|archivedate=2012-03-20}} During the years 1996–2000, she assisted as legal counselor to the president nominated as sub-secretary of state.{{cite news|url=http://www.elcomercio.com/mundo/Margarita-Cedeno-primera-convirtio-vicepresidenta_0_755924530.html|title=Margarita Cedeño, la popular primera dama que se convirtió en vicepresidenta|agency=EFE|location=Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic|newspaper=El Comercio|date=2012-08-15|accessdate=2012-08-16}} Besides being ad honorem counselor and director of the Legal and Investment Environment Management of the Office for the Promotion of Foreign Investment of the Dominican Republic.

She has a bachelor's in law from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and a master's in economic Llllegislation from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. She also has participated in courses and seminars at Georgetown and Harvard University in the United States and Geneva University in Switzerland.

On 16 October 2009, Cedeño was named Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).{{cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/ambassadors/ambassadors/ambassadors-fernandez/es/|title=Excma. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández – Embajadora Extraordinaria de la FAO|publisher=FAO|accessdate=2012-08-16|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101115193228/http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/ambassadors/ambassadors/ambassadors-fernandez/es/|archivedate=2010-11-15}}

Political career

When she was the First Lady (2004–2012), she and her staff coordinated social policies for her husband's administration, generating programs of health and education for children, young people, single mothers and families, in general, as a key element in society.

=2012 presidential election=

On April 10, 2011, in a meeting of the Central Committee (Comité Central) of the Dominican Liberation Party, she registered her pre-candidature for the 2012 presidential elections.{{cite news|url=http://elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=237813|title=PLD aprueba 7 aspirantes para escoger su candidato el 26 de junio|newspaper=El Nuevo Diario|date=2011-04-10|accessdate=2012-08-16}} She was elected vice president to Danilo Medina on 20 May 2012. She became the second woman to serve as vice president after Milagros Ortiz Bosch was elected under former president Hipólito Mejía in 2000–2004.

Notes

References

External links

{{Official website|https://margarita.do/}}
[http://www.la-republique-dominicaine.org/Margarita_Cedeno_de_Fernandez.html French biography] {{in lang|fr}}

{{s-ttl|title=Vice President of the Dominican Republic|years=2012–2020}}

Category:1965 births

Category:21st-century Dominican Republic women politicians

Category:21st-century Dominican Republic politicians

Category:Dominican Liberation Party politicians

Category:20th-century Dominican Republic lawyers

Category:Dominican Republic philanthropists

Category:21st-century Dominican Republic women lawyers

Category:FAO Goodwill ambassadors

Category:First ladies of the Dominican Republic

Category:Living people

Category:Politicians from Santo Domingo