Late Venezuelan Attorney General IsaĂas RodrĂguez issues statements to the press. File photo.
This Sunday, Venezuela learnt of the death of Julián IsaĂas RodrĂguez, a driving force behind the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.
He was a member of the Constituent Assemblies of 1999 and 2017, and the last public position he held was that of Venezuelan ambassador to Italy.
RodrĂguez played a key role as attorney general during the “48-hour” coup d’Ă©tat of April 11, 2002, against President Hugo Chávez.
RodrĂguez called a press conference in which he said he was going to officially present his resignation; however, instead he took the opportunity to reveal the true situation to the press, confirming that a coup was taking place. Through this tactic, the government was able to produce live press coverage regarding the true nature of the unconstitutional coup unfolding in Venezuela.
After obtaining information about President Chavez, who was being held prisoner by a sector of the military in Fort Tiuna, and confirming that Chavez had not resigned from the presidency (as had been falsely reported by the US-backed coup plotters), RodrĂguez announced to the country live that an illegal coup d’Ă©tat was being carried out. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans descended on Miraflores Palace, demanding that their rightful president be restored to his post.
President Nicolás Maduro noted that “what IsaĂas did was fundamental to the April rebellion and revolution.”
RodrĂguez was born in Valle de la Pascua, Guárico state, on December 16, 1942. A lawyer by profession and a graduate of the Central University of Venezuela, he was the first executive vice president of Venezuela under the new constitution of 1999, attorney general of the republic, and second vice president of the National Constituent Assembly, convened in 2017.
The prosecutor passed away in Caracas this Sunday, January 12, at the age of 82.
Special religious service at the National Assembly
President Nicolás Maduro, from the funeral service held at the National Assembly to honor RodrĂguez, said that “we are paying tribute to a sincere man with a clean soul, a man who deserves this and much more. From the ceremonial hall of the Legislative Branch, the Venezuelan Public Power, and the Bolivarian National Armed Force, we pay tribute to IsaĂas RodrĂguez, who will always be remembered as the brave prosecutor of the people of Venezuela.”
During the posthumous tributes, the president awarded the Post-Mortem Order of Liberators of Venezuela, first class, to RodrĂguez, as well as a replica of the saber of victory of the Battle of Carabobo.
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“And like a great swordsman brandishing that victorious saber that I have given him today, IsaĂas appeared like a ray of light to ignite the popular military insurrection that rescued Commander Chávez on the night of April 12, and that allowed us to recover our Constitution without firing a shot. Astute, bold, and intelligent, he was the prosecutor who, in the middle of the coup, managed to deceive those who called on him to support the coup and immediately announced in a press conference: ‘Commander Chávez was visited and it has been confirmed that he is illegally kidnapped. Hugo Chávez is still the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and must be released immediately.’ That day, IsaĂas became immortal—he who today passes to another life to accompany us forever.”
“We are saying goodbye to a man of lofty ideas, of deep and clear philosophy,” continued President Maduro. “He may be known as a poet, but he was truly a man of humanity. Our generation heard of a certain IsaĂas RodrĂguez, in the fields of Aragua and the center of the country, a man with great qualities, a brilliant lawyer, who never gave in to the temptations of injustice or money, a man who was capable of enthusiastically defending, in particular, the causes of the people.”
(Ăšltimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
