Juan Manuel Sucre Figarella
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Juan Manuel Sucre Figarella (1925 - 1996), a member of the Sucre family was a Venezuelan Army Brigadier General (General de Brigada - EJ) who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Venezuelan army in the 1970s during the administration of President Rafael Caldera. He is a direct descendant of the great War of Independence hero Grand Marshall of Ayacucho Antonio Jose de Sucre.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Tumeremo, Bolivar state in Venezuela in 1925 he was the oldest son of Juan Manuel Sucre Ruiz and Ines Figarella Cordoliani de Sucre. His father was the owner of a gold mine in this mineral-rich state of Venezuela and his mother was a first generation Venezuelan of Corsican parents. As a youth, General Sucre Figarella lost his parents at a young age and was left to do a lot of the upbringing of his younger siblings Leopoldo, Ines Matilde, Antonio, Jose Francisco and Guillermo.
[edit] Family
All the siblings would go on to achieve great things in their lifetimes, in the field of politics, arts and medicine. Leopoldo was a leading member of Accion Democratica, one of the two most important parties in post-dictatorship Venezuelan democracy (alongside COPEI), and served as Minister of Public Works under several administrations, as a Senator from the state of Bolivar for a number of years (he died while still serving in the senate) and as the President of the CVG, the most important state-owned company in Bolivar, and surely all of the south of Venezuela. Jose Francisco, also a politician and a diplomat, served as an Ambassador to a great number of European countries, including Russia (post-USSR) and Austria among several others. Guillermo is one of the most important poets of 20th Century Venezuelan and Latin American literature, while Antonio was an influential and very important gynecologist.
[edit] Education and the UN
General Sucre graduated from the Academia Militar de Venezuela (Military Academy of Venezuela) as an Alférez in 1945 with the "Porras Porras" Class, named after a classmate who had died during their time in the Academy and who was nicknamed Porras Porras. He went on to complete high military degrees in different areas in Brazil's Escola Superior de Guerra and at the US's School of the Americas (SOA) now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). General Sucre went on to serve as a part of the United Nations's peacemaking forces (the famous Blue Helmets) in India in the 1960s during conflicts with Pakistan.
[edit] Later Military Career
General Sucre's military career reached its pinnacle when President Caldera, a hero of the democractic movement that brought down the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez, was elected to office in 1969 and named him Jefe de la Casa Militar (Chief of the Military House) which placed General Sucre at the head of all presidential security needs and procedures. Their relationship was a very close one and they remained very close friends for the rest of their lives, bringing together both families as their wives, Alicia Pietri de Caldera and Gisela Garcia de Sucre, also became great friends. During his time as Chief, Sucre had to deal with sporadic but important guerilla movements all over the nation that threatened the stability of the emerging democratic movement.
[edit] Commander-In-Chief
In February 1974, the last year of Caldera's presidency, Sucre Figarella was named to the highest office in the Venezuelan Army, that of Commander-in-Chief of the Army. In Venezuelan army organization, the four parts of the Fuerzas Armadas (Armed Forces) are the Ejercito (Army), Armada (Navy), Aviación (Air Force) and the Guardia Nacional (National Guard) each have their own Commander-in-Chief, and serve directly under the Minister of Defense and the President. Such high offices are usually reserved for the highest-ranking members of each branch. As a General de Brigada, Sucre Figarella did not hold the highest rank, which is that of General de División, but the President and the Senate thought him fit and worthy for such an office and appointed him to the post. Sucre Figarella was honored but still considered that a General de Brigada he should have been overlooked in favor of other higher-ranking members of the Army. However, he took the office and led it honorably and with dignity till April 1975. As Carlos Andrés Pérez, a member of Caldera's COPEI's main rival, Accion Democratica, took the office of President, he replaced Sucre Figarella with Manuel Bereciartu.
[edit] Post-Military Life
After achieving the highest office in his career, General Sucre decided to retire soon after his replacement was put in place. He served as President of Seguros Horizontes, a branch of the Army in charge of providing insurance to officers and others. Later he would serve as Chief of Security of Banco del Orinoco until the time of his death in 1996.
[edit] Personal life
Sucre married Gisela García Gruber in the 1940's, and fathered 8 children (Juan Manuel, Mario Ricardo, Gustavo Adolfo, Manuel Jose, Gisela, Carlos Alfredo, María Inés and Teodoro de Jesús) and grandfathered 19. He was a devout and repected lay follower of the Salesian Order of the Roman Catholic Church and his relationship with the Colegio San Juan Bosco de Altamira lasted almost all of his adult life, with several of his children marrying in the school's temple. General Sucre was highly admired for his honest, humble and strong character which made him a natural leader. He died due to pancreas cancer on August 26th, 1996.
President Caldera would perhaps best sum up his life with his phrase uttered to Sucre Figarella in the 1970's when he said, "General Sucre, you are the General Sucre of the 20th Century", meaning that he was the natural heir to the great Venezuelan hero General Antonio José de Sucre, of whom General Sucre was a direct descendant (the Grand Marshall's youngest brother, Juan Manuel, was the great-great grandfather of General Sucre).
