Security & Strategic Review - July 2005

VENEZUELA | Surprise reshuffle of military high command. On 4 July President Hugo Chávez surprised almost everybody in Caracas by replacing General-in-Chief Jorge Garcí­a Carneiro as defence minister and keeping the man most touted as his successor, General Raúl Baduel, in his post as commander of the army. Many local analysts, including former high-ranking officers, had expected Chávez to elevate Baduel to the defence ministry as Garcí­a Carneiro stepped down upon reaching retirement age. One retired admiral, Iván Carratú, went as far as to state that it would be 'difficult' for Chávez to appoint a defence minister drawn from either the navy or the airforce, due to the degree of support enjoyed by Garcí­a Carneiro in the army, by far the largest of the services, and the one in which Chávez himself served. However, Chávez did pick a new defence minister from outside the army: he appointed Rear Admiral Orlando Maniglia, hitherto inspector-general of the armed forces, promoting him full admiral a rank which had not been held by any naval officer for at least a century. Maniglia, like Garcí­a Carneiro, was also due to retire this year.

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