Guillermo Fernández Vara (6 October 1958 – 5 October 2025) was a Spanish politician and coroner who served as President of the Regional Government of Extremadura from 2007 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2023. He served as a senator, and was vice president of the Senate, representing the Assembly of Extremadura.
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Career
Fernández Vara studied medicine at the University of Córdoba. In 1986 he joined the National Corps of Forensic Doctors and in 1988 he was assigned to his native Extremadura, where he also served as associated professor of the University of Extremadura.
In 1990 he performed the autopsies of some victims of the Puerto Hurraco massacre and participated on the elaboration of a psychiatric profile of the shooters.
He joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and became friends with the regional president, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra. During Rodríguez Ibarra's governments, he served as Director-General for Public Health and Consumer Affairs (1995–1996), Regional Minister for Social Welfare (1996–1999) and Regional Minister for Health and Consumer Affairs (1999–2007).
Following the regional president's decision to retire, Fernández Vara was elected President of the Regional Government of Extremadura after the 2007 regional election. He lost the 2011 election but won again in 2015, serving two terms until 2023, when a conservative coalition ousted him from government.
In July 2023, the Assembly of Extremadura nominated him as senator. A month later, he was elected Second Vice President of the Senate.
In 2008 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Health.
Death
Fernández Vara died of stomach cancer on 5 October 2025 at the age of 66. Two days later, the Council of Ministers posthumously awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III.