Raúl Baduel
Encyclopedia
Raúl Isaías Baduel is a Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n politician, retired general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

, and former Defense Minister under President Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

. He was a member of Chavez' MBR-200, joining in December 1982.

Military

In 1993 Baduel attended the School of Americas, an officer training school for Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n military officers run by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

. He was instrumental in restoring Chávez to power after the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, and was described by the BBC as "one of a small group of officers 'co-governing' Venezuela with Mr Chavez". He was commander-in-chief of the Venezuelan Army from 2004 until July 2007.

Opposition leader

In 2007 Baduel left his position as Defense Minister. Chávez later said that he had removed Baduel from office because he had been unable to explain a string of irregularities. He had called his friend into his office and asked him to explain various issues, and he had been unable to do so, and a few days later, he had sacked him.

After retiring as Defense Minister, he emerged in 2007 as an opposition leader, when he publicly broke with Chavez and announced his opposition to the constitutional changes proposed in the 2007 constitutional referendum
Venezuelan constitutional referendum, 2007
A constitutional referendum was held in Venezuela on 2 December 2007 to amend 69 articles of the 1999 Constitution. Reform was needed, according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, to implement his socialist agenda; detractors said he was using the reforms to become a dictator.The referendum was...

 (narrowly defeated) that would have strengthened the powers of the presidency and removed the restriction on public officials being re-elected. Baduel "emerged as a prominent voice of dissent" concerned that Chavez was taking Venezuela down a "road to ruin" and becoming authoritarian. He became the highest-ranking military person opposed to Chavez's constitutional changes that would "concentrate power in the executive". In July 2007, he said, "A socialist regime is not incompatible with a democratic system of checks and balances and division of powers. We must separate ourselves from Marxist orthodoxy."

Corruption charge

In October 2008, a "military prosecutor said he was responsible for about $14 million that disappeared during his tenure as defense minister" in a transaction involving the purchase of military equipment. According to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, "Chávez has moved against a wide range of domestic critics, and his efforts in recent weeks to strengthen his grip on the armed forces have led to high-profile arrests and a wave of reassignments". On 2 April 2009, Baduel was arrested; Baduel said that his arrest was politically motivated, and according to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, he says "his crime was to realise – and declare – that the president was a tyrant".

The 2009 Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

 report mentions Baduel as an example of political persecution. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 expressed concern about the case, and Steve Ellner, a Venezuelan historian and analyst, noted that "courts overwhelmingly targeted opposition figures. 'Chávez's case would be much stronger if he went after corruption within his own government.' Arresting Baduel neutralised an opponent who could stir trouble in the army. 'Obviously throwing Baduel in jail had a political motivation.'" In April 2010, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

accused "the Venezuelan government of deliberately targeting opposition leaders and sympathizers".

In May 2010, Baduel was convicted by a military court of corruption and sentenced to seven years and eleven months in prison; Baduel says he is innocent. The military court declared that US$3.9 million was misappropriated, according to interviews with members of various military units; Baduel's daughter said no proof existed and the main evidence was provided by soldiers who claimed to see another officer carrying some black bags. From Ramo Verde prison, Baduel sent a Twitter message to family members, saying, "God is with us and divine justice is always active".
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