Angel Vivas Perdomo

A Venezuelan Brigadier General known as an outspoken opponent to the changes in the Venezuelan Armed Forces. He petitioned the Venezuelan Supreme Court to eliminate the armed forces’ new motto “Homeland, Socialism, or Death,” created and used by former Cuban President Fidel Castro. In 2008, he was arrested, charged with insubordination, and prosecuted. On March 1, 2012, he was sentenced to 4 months and 15 days in jail for petitioning the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ, per its acronym in Spanish) regarding its denial of the above-mentioned motto. In 2014, Vivas created the National Anti-Castro-Communist Venezuelan Resistance, an organization with the objective of combating Cuba’s influence over Caracas. On April 7, 2017, he was once again arrested by the SEBIN through an operation that tricked the Brigadier into helping a young man who was killed after riding into metal wires strung across the street during a protest in Caracas. Vivas was charged with murder and released on June 1, 2018.