Carlos Delgado Chalbaud

Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
President of Venezuela
In office 24 November 1948 – 13 November 1950
Preceded by	Rómulo Gallegos
Succeeded by	Germán Suárez Flamerich
Minister of Defense
In office 21 October 1945 – 24 November 1948
Preceded by	Delfín Becerra
Succeeded by	Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Personal details
Born	(1909-01-20)20 January 1909 Caracas
Died	13 November 1950(1950-11-13) (aged 41) Caracas
Spouse	Lucía Devine
Signature

Carlos Román Delgado Chalbaud Gómez (20 January 1909 – 13 November 1950) was a Venezuelan career military officer, and as leader of a military junta was President of Venezuela from 1948 to 1950. By 1945 he was a high-ranking officer and was among the leaders of a military coup which brought to power the mass membership party Democratic Action. In 1948, whilst Minister of Defense, he led another military coup and became head of state as President of a military junta, serving in that position until his death. He was assassinated in Caracas.

Early life and career

Delgado Chalbaud was the son of Román Delgado Chalbaud (grandson of a French immigrant and great-grandson of Andalusian colonist) and Luisa Elena Gómez Velutini (of Corsican descent). He was known as Carlos Delgado Chalbaud because he used the last names of his father Román Delgado Chalbaud as a form of tribute to his memory. With just 20 years old he approaches the cruiser Falke in the port of Danzig (Poland), that landed in the coasts of Cumaná on August 11, 1929, with the purpose of overthrow the strongman Juan Vicente Gomez. In this failed operation his father Román commandant of the expeditionaries was shot and died, reason why Carlos decided to return to France. Delgado Chalbaud spent most of his life in Paris, where he studied engineering and later attended the Saint-Cyr military academy. He returned to Venezuela in 1939 and was promptly commissioned in the Venezuelan army by president General Eleazar Lopez Contreras with the rank of captain.

Career

As one of the brightest officials of the Armed Forces associated with the group that overthrew Isaías Medina Angarita in 1945, he was a member of the Government Revolutionary Junta which replaced Medina in power. He was Minister of Defense during the presidencies of Rómulo Betancourt and Rómulo Gallegos.

In 1948 Chalbaud was among those who overthrew that government of president Gallegos, and was a member of the Military Junta of Government along with Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Luis Llovera Páez, being the titular head of the three-person junta. Delgado Chalbaud was twice a betrayer, but Venezuelan historians tend to speak well of him, analogously as they argue in America that John F. Kennedy would not have allowed the Vietnam War to escalate. But both positions are counterfactual, hence un-provable. What is often said is that Delgado Chalbaud was planning to restore Venezuelan democracy. If that was his intention, he did not get the chance to accomplish it. He was kidnapped and assassinated on 13 November 1950, by a group led by Rafael Simon Urbina and his nephew Domingo Urbina. The kidnapping took place in Caracas between the neighborhoods of Country Club and Chapellin, and his murder took place in Las Mercedes neigborhood, semi abandonned at this time.

Although it has not been possible to confirm, for many people, the mastermind was Pérez Jiménez; nevertheless some believe this is unlikely since the wife of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Doña Flor María Chalbaud Cardona de Pérez Jiménez, was Delgado Chalbaud's cousin. His murder seems to be the unintended outcome of a failed kidnapping led by Simon Urbina who looked to overthrow the Chalbaud presidency. Some believe Urbina despised Delgado Chalbaud although others allege they were close until a falling out over politics split them apart. The day after the capture and imprisonment of Urbina, he was assassinated by orders of the Direction of National Security, effectively securing Pérez Jiménez's position as the strongman in Venezuela for the next several years.

Personal life and legacy

Chalbaud was married to Lucía Devine, who served as First Lady of Venezuela from 1948–1950. Cerro Carlos Delgado Chalbaud (1047m), a mountain in Venezuela's Amazonas estate where the headwaters of the Orinoco River are located, is named after him.

• 
  Lucía Devine

See also

• Presidents of Venezuela

References

• "Carlos Delgado Chalbaud" (in Spanish). Government of Venezuela. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011.
• "Carlos Delgado Chalbaud" (in Spanish). Mipunto.com. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012.