Hugo Chavez’s Praetorian Guards

Ray Walser / November 12, 2010

Hugo Chávez took another bold step in his campaign to consolidate authoritarian control over the Venezuelan people when he promoted Gen. Henry Rangel Silva to the rank of General-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Silva is in the limelight because in an interview this week regarding the military and the 2012 presidential elections, Silva declared:

The hypothesis of an elected [opposition] government is hard to swallow, it would mean selling the country, and that is not going to be accepted, not by the armed forces and much less by the people.

Message: Beware, if the elections do not go our way; the Army is prepared to step in. (more…)