Venezuelan Army General Who Saved Hugo Chavez From Coup Dies in Jail
Source: Wall Street Journal
Raúl Baduel’s loyalty doomed a 2002 coup against the socialist leader but he later became a political prisoner
Raúl Baduel, an army general who became a hero of Venezuela’s leftist government when he helped its strongman survive a coup but later turned into one of its most prominent political prisoners, died in jail late Tuesday, his family and the government said. He was 66.
The death of Gen. Baduel, a confidant of the socialist leader Hugo Chávez before becoming a dissident, was announced in a Twitter post by Venezuela’s attorney general, who said Gen. Baduel had suffered a cardiac failure triggered by Covid-19. He died awaiting trial for treason in what is commonly called “The Tomb,” an underground Caracas detention center run by the country’s military intelligence.
Gen. Baduel’s family denied that he had contracted the virus and blamed the government for his death. “My soul is broken,” said his daughter, Andreina Baduel, who had spent the past decade advocating her father’s freedom. “The regime killed my beloved and brave papa.”
On Wednesday, Ms. Baduel and other members of the large Baduel family gathered outside the capital’s Bello Monte morgue to demand that Gen. Baduel body not be cremated—as the government has done with most deceased Covid-19 victims—in order to carry out a thorough investigation into the cause of his death.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelan-army-general-who-saved-hugo-chavez-from-coup-dies-in-jail-11634156236