General Raúl Baduel, considered one of the most emblematic political prisoners in Venezuela for having been Extension of Defense of Hugo Chávez, has died of COVID-19 complications, the Attorney General has reported on Tuesday.
“We regret the death of Raúl Isaiah Baduel from a cardiorespiratory station of Covid-19”, has written the Tarek Saab prosecutor on Twitter.
The course of the retired officer occurred “while applying the corresponding medical care” and after having “received the first dose of the vaccine,” Saab added.
Baduel, who has died with 66 years, helped to restore Chávez after the coup d’état of April 2002 that briefly pulled him out of power.
In 2004 he was appointed General Commander of the Army, a position he exercised until 2006, when he was appointed Minister of Defense.
He went to Retiro in 2007. That year he became adversary of Chavismo, manifesting against a reform to the Constitution promoted by Chávez.
In 2009 he was arrested under charges of corruption and purged a penalty of almost eight years.
After leaving released in 2015, he was again imprisoned in 2017 accused of conspiracy against the current President Nicolás Maduro, who dismissed him from the armed force and degraded.
His family says he learned of death on Twitter.
“I do not even, by charity, I have received a call from any Government’s character,” Him’s wife, Cruz Zambrano de Baduel, told the Internet EVTV.
Zambrano also ensures that Baduel, whom he saw for last time four weeks ago, did not have Covid.
“To him when he took him out of the tomb, he did not have Covid, it is not true, I know he was vaccinated by a week before taking him out of the grave.”
As “the tomb” or the helicoid is known to an arrest center of the Bolivarian Service of National Intelligence (Sebin) in Caracas on which several allegations of alleged human rights violations weigh.
“With the death of Raúl Isaiah Baduel, there are already 10 political prisoners who die in police custody,” said Lawyer Gonzalo Himiob, of the NGO Criminal Forum dedicated to defending political prisoners.
Baduel is the third “political prisoner” dead in custody this year, he recalled Alfredo Romero, also a member of Criminal Forum.
Two of Baduel’s sons have also been arrested under conspiracy indications, the first of them Raúl Emilio, who is now in freedom.
Josnars Adolfo Baduel was arrested for the alleged participation of him in a maritime incursion in May 2020 known as “Operation Gideon” who was looking for the exit of Maduro.
He is still arrested.
The military family, who became in Chávez’s closest environment, often denounced problems visiting him in prison.
More recently they reported that he was detained with his son Josnars Adolfo in the Helicoid prison.
“My dad @raulbaduel is kidnapped by the regime in the center of torture, Sebin-helicoid. My brother @jbaduel is kidnapped and tortured by the regime at the center of torture, Sebin-Helicoid,” his daughter, Andreína Baduel wrote.
, one of the main spokes of the family.
“The responsibility for the life and health of any detainee falls on the State. Medical treatment is continually required for prisoners. Almost there is never adequate response,” Himiob remarked on Twitter.
According to Criminal Forum, at the date of today there are about 259 “political prisoners” in Venezuela, including 126 military.
For his part, the opposition leader Juan Guido said that Baduel “murdered him the dictatorship”.
“He kidnapped him, tortured him and denied him medical attention. After 12 years of brutal suffering, Baduel is the tenth political prisoner who dies in the hands of the regime. Today more than 250 Venezuelans continue at risk as hostages of the dictatorship,” he said Bombó in Risk.
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