MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

One of Chavez ideologist mentors but disenchanted with the revolution, dies

General Alberto Müller Rojas “very bad times” for the Bolivarian revolution

The retired general and ex-leader of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV, has died, state-run media reported. He was 75.

Alberto Müller Rojas, known as one of the ideologues of the “Bolivarian Revolution,” which has been led since its inception 11 years ago by populist President Hugo Chavez, had been out of politics since resigning in March as director of the PSUV on grounds that the Venezuelan process was going through “very bad” times.

“In his activities in support of the Bolivarian government, Müller Rojas served as PSUV vice president and ran the (1998) election campaign for the then-presidential candidate Hugo Chavez,” the state-run AVN news agency reported.

The retired general was also Venezuelan ambassador to Chile in 2000 and was a member of the so-called Presidential General Staff, or presidential guard, according to the AVN report.

“What news we’ve had these days. Now my Gen. Müller has died. So play the Carabobo reveille, a thousand bugles, and beat a thousand drums!” Chavez said on his Twitter account.

The Venezuelan president also expressed Friday in a Twitter message his sorrow for the death from colon cancer of socialist lawmaker Luis Tascon, 41, who in recent years became a critic of the Chavez government while remaining a target of opposition wrath for publishing a list of all those who signed a petition calling for a recall referendum on Chavez.

The list was widely used -- and is still being used -- to deny Venezuelans who appear on it access to government jobs, assistance, and at times even things as fundamental as passports.