Nora Castañeda (12 June 1942 – 16 May 2015) was a Venezuelan economist and activist who was President of the Women's Development Bank from 2001 to 2015.
After marrying Jesus Rivero, she moved to Nicaragua and joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front during the later stages of the Nicaraguan Revolution.
After the Sandinistas came to power in the early 1980s, she returned to Venezuela, joining the working class women’s movement.
[citation needed] Throughout the 1990s, Castañeda became an advisor to and ally of Hugo Chávez.
After her death in 2015, she was awarded an Order of the Liberator by Vice President Jorge Arreaza.