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Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lípez met with his Honduran counterpart, José Manuel Zelaya, and the head of the Armed Forces, Roosevelt Hernández.
In this context, the meeting held in the South American nation caused a stir in the Central American country, due to Padrino López’s alleged links to drug trafficking and crimes against humanity.
However, on his social media, the military leader defines himself as a ” Bolivarian soldier , determined and convinced to continue building the socialist homeland ” and one of the men closest to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Padrino López has had a peculiar journey in his military career. In fact, in the 1990s, he attended the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia, USA, where autocrats such as Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri and Manuel Antonio Noriega passed through.
Furthermore, the military career of Padrino López – who commands a force of around 300,000 soldiers – took a turn during the coup against the late Hugo Chávez in April 2002. That year Padrino López commanded the Bolívar Battalion, an armored unit at Fort Tiuna.
Vladimir Padrino López, the key man
The officer remained loyal to Chavez and was rewarded with a career that has been on the rise ever since.