Comandante En Jefe: The New All Military Leader Rank
The office of the Venezuelan military supreme commander has always been held by the President of Venezuela as per constitutional requirements, however with the new law sanctioned in 2008, the “Comandante en Jefe” is not only a function attributed to the executive branch, but is now set to be a military rank equivalent to a Five Stars General or a Marshall. Anybody who gets elected President of Venezuela is incorporated to the military with a full commissioned officer status and will have a uniform.
Chávez retired as Lieutenant Colonel in the Army in 1992, but with this new responsibility he is reinstated in the army and has the right to wear a uniform and distinctive shoulder badge and sleeve insignia. He was also given a sword. This rank holds the direct operational control and command over all armed forces, and is held while he is in the presidential role.
The position is a copy of the one used by Fidel Castro in Cuba, and the design of the shoulder patch are very similar, but not in the shoulder board on the dress uniform since Venezuelan military ranks are inspired by German (especially Prussian) military influence.
Read more about this topic: Venezuelan Military Ranks
Famous quotes containing the words military, leader and/or rank:
“[I]t is a civil Cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military Fear to be slow in attacking when it is your Duty.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.”
—Bernard Baruch (1870–1965)
“Lady Hodmarsh and the duchess immediately assumed the clinging affability that persons of rank assume with their inferiors in order to show them that they are not in the least conscious of any difference in station between them.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)