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The general's words were undoubtedly a boost for Mr Chavez, himself a former paratroop officer.
ECONOMIST: The pressure mounts on Chavez
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As the commander of a paratroop regiment in 1992, he staged a military coup.
ECONOMIST: Latin American leaders: Enigma of the people | The
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It was in French Indochina that Gen Bigeard began to make his name as a commander in a Paratroop regiment.
BBC: French Gen Marcel Bigeard dies aged 94
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But the former army paratroop officer who rose to fame with a failed 1992 coup, never groomed a successor with his force of personality.
NPR: Venezuela: Chavez Hit By New, Severe Infection
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The former paratroop regiment commander caused controversy in France in 2000 when he told a newspaper that torture had been a "necessary evil" in Algeria.
BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request
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Many of these were of officers who had taken part in the attempted coup staged by Mr Chavez in 1992 when he was a paratroop lieutenant-colonel.
ECONOMIST: Chavez stirs things up | The
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The former paratroop colonel, dismissed in the early days of his challenge for power as a political neophyte, has now put the sophisticates rudely in their place.
ECONOMIST: Venezuela: Chavez rules | The
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These are some of the code-names from long ago of the defended hill outposts and paratroop drop-zones set in the waving elephant grass of the Indochinese highlands at Dien Bien Phu.
ECONOMIST: The war in Indochina
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Meanwhile, Mr Chavez, a former paratroop officer and leader of a failed coup, is tightening his grip over the army: on August 10th he sacked its commander, amid reports of dissent among senior officers.
ECONOMIST: Venezuela