William Izarra, a retired air force officer and one of Chavez's chief theorists, then shot back with a tweet saying that he and his son "will remain revolutionaries to the end of our lives." Gonzalez, then in her mid-20s, was a journalist on the show when Izarra, then communications minister, was invited on as a sort of Chavista punching bag to defend a new media law making it easier for the government to take critical broadcasters off the air. A romance, kept secret at first, ensued and about six months later Gonzalez paid a visit to the home of her boss and the show's popular anchor, Leopoldo Castillo, to tell him a marriage was planned. In announcing her engagement with an on-air farewell, Gonzalez complained about intolerance from co-workers, said her car tires had been slashed and told of being insulted by complete strangers at a cafe. Government supporters, meanwhile, questioned whether Izarra wasn't opening the door to a fifth column by marrying into the family of an opposition standard bearer. Acosta said the example of tolerance Izarra and Ledezma appear to have in their private lives could serve as a model for overcoming Venezuela's political impasse and avoid a disastrous bloodletting.