Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday promoted a general who sparked controversy by suggesting the military would not accept an electoral return to power by government opponents.
Chavez granted Gen. Henry Rangel Silva the rank of general-in-chief, calling him a “humble and great soldier” and saying he had been unfairly criticized by Venezuela’s political opposition and the U.S. government.
In a recent interview, the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias quoted Rangel as saying neither the military nor the public would accept an opposition victory in the country’s 2012 presidential election. The general also told the newspaper that officers are loyal to Chavez’s socialist political project.
Rangel’s comments unleashed criticism from opponents, who object to Chavez’s efforts to inject politics into the military — including the salute that the president repeated with gusto Saturday to troops who stood at the outdoor ceremony: “Socialist fatherland or death!”
Rangel was also singled out in 2008 by the U.S. Treasury Department, which accused him and two other members of Chavez’s inner circle of helping leftist Colombian rebels by supplying arms and aiding drug trafficking operations. Chavez dismissed those accusations as politically motivated.
Addressing Rangel, Chavez said his opponents “get furious when you go out and say... that the armed forces are married with this national project, married forever.” Chavez added: “Let them keep hating ... general-in-chief.”
Rangel, the military’s strategic operational commander, defended his comments in a speech, saying soldiers have an obligation to “Bolivarian military thought” — a reference to Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution movement, named after independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Diego Arria, a prominent Chavez opponent, condemned Rangel’s promotion and said on Twitter that Chavez is sending a “shameful message.”
In his speech at a military base in Maracay, Chavez also suggested that Venezuela’s military is firmly allied with the armed forces of Bolivia, Ecuador and Cuba, where the governments share his leftist ideology and anti-U.S. leanings.
Chavez praised the commander of Bolivia’s army for recently declaring it to be a socialist and “anti-imperialist” force. He said the region’s militaries used to be “puppets of the (U.S.) empire.”
Chavez, who often denounces purported assassination plots, also said his mentor Fidel Castro has advised him to be careful because “they’re hunting you.” He said Castro told him the thousands of Cubans who are working in Venezuela would come to his defense if necessary.
More than 40,000 Cubans have been sent to Venezuela in roles ranging from doctors and sports trainers to military advisers, and Chavez said Castro told him: “Chavez, don’t forget that you have a troop there, the Cubans who are in Venezuela. ... If someday the United States, the empire, attacks Venezuela ... Cuban blood would also flow.”
Chavez said Venezuela’s soldiers are similarly allied “with Bolivia’s soldiers, with Bolivia’s leader, and the same in Ecuador.”
Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup, has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of conspiring to overthrow him. American officials deny it.
Equipping the military is crucial to defending the country if necessary against “the threat of the empire and its allies,” Chavez said. He said that Venezuela is working on developing its own unmanned drone planes, and that “soon the Russian tanks will begin to arrive.”
In order to help Venezuela make new arms purchases, Chavez said that “the Russian government has given us $4 billion in credit” — an amount he said was discussed during his recent visit to Moscow.
Venezuela has already bought more than $4 billion worth of Russian arms since 2005, including dozens of helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and 24 Sukhoi fighter jets — some of which thundered overhead during the ceremony.