Former Venezuelan defense minister Isaias Baduel, who was jailed last year on corruption charges, has said his onetime ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wants to be “president for life” in a country “in shambles.”
Baduel, a retired general, was sentenced last year to nearly eight years in prison for embezzlement and abuse of power for alleged crimes dating from his time as defense minister in 2006 and 2007.
However, Baduel, in an exclusive interview from his prison cell in Ramo Verde outside Caracas, said he had been the victim of political persecution since he left Chavez’s government.
“In 1982, I swore with Chavez to work tirelessly for a true democracy, but he decided to forget that pledge and instead pursue efforts to remain president for life in a Venezuela in shambles,” Baduel said.
The two men were once close. They met nearly 40 years ago at the country’s prestigious military academy, where they promised each other to “work together for the creation of a better democracy,” Baduel said.
The former general joined Chavez in government when he took power in 1999. In April 2002, Baduel led the operation that allowed the leftist firebrand to remain in power following a coup attempt.
However, their relationship later soured, and they severed all ties in 2007, when Baduel campaigned against Chavez’s proposals for a new Socialist constitution, which was eventually rejected in a referendum.
“In April 2002, I fulfilled my duties and remained faithful to the constitution. In 2007, I once again felt the need to say I thought things had taken a turn for the worse,” Baduel said.
After leaving government, the former minister was accused of corruption and then sentenced in May last year to seven years and 11 months in prison. He says proper legal procedures were ignored and the charges never explained.
“They could not even agree on the amount that I had supposedly embezzled,” said the 56-year-old Baduel, his cell decorated with religious images and photos of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
“I could have fled, but I decided to stay because I know I am innocent. They accuse me of being a traitor. Traitor to what? To whom? To one man? I prefer that than to betray millions of people,” he added.
“Today, I think the man I once knew lied to me. I think that Chavez has always had a hidden agenda,” Baduel said, calling his former friend’s government a “dictatorship in disguise” colored by a “cult of personality.”
He urged the people of Venezuela to rally, likening the atmosphere in the country to a “pressure-cooker without a steam release valve.”
Baduel nevertheless acknowledged that the country’s problems would not disappear with the departure of Chavez, who is now battling cancer.
One year ahead of expected presidential polls, the general said he had not ruled out the possibility of being granted amnesty, as Chavez — who will be seeking a third term — could possibly see it as politically advantageous.
As for his onetime friend’s health problems, Baduel said: “He was forced to submit himself to God’s power, and God reminded him what life is worth.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not