Ramon Solano (1966-2010) was a Venezuelan businessman who briefly served as President of Venezuela in 2010. He assumed the presidency on 30 August 2010 after General Carlos Carmona used the Venezuelan Army to stage a coup against the previous government, and Solano became a popular figure as a "man of the people" who pledged to make sure that foreign oil companies would pay for their exploitation of Venezuela's national resources, and that Venezuela would become a Latin American superpower. His violent rise to power and the ensuing oil crisis led to the Venezuelan Civil War, and he was ultimately overthrown and killed.
Biography[]
Ramon Solano was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1966, the son of former drug lord and billionaire Eduardo Solano. Solano inherited one of the top software companies in the country and its multi-billion fortunes from his father, and he purchased a villa outside of Maracaibo. Solano, who grew up in an urban area as a common man and became a multi-billionaire, decided to use his background to build a populist political platform as he sought to achieve the top office in the country, the Presidency. He used his connections to find an ally in General Carlos Carmona, and he had Carmona stage a coup in early 2010. However, this coup failed, and Carmona was imprisoned on the Isla de Mano. Solano reached out to private military contractor Mattias Nilsson - a veteran of the Song Initiative conflict in North Korea - to rescue Carmona and assist in the coup. Nilsson succeeded in rescuing Carmona, but Solano betrayed Nilsson, knowing that his opponents could re-hire Nilsson to topple him once he seized power. Nilsson escaped Solano's Villa with a gunshot wound to the buttocks, and Solano initially believed Nilsson to be dead.
Solano proceeded to have Carmona launch a successful military coup, and Carmona invited Solano to serve as the civilian leader of an interim government. On 30 August 2010, in a televised speech to the Venezuelan masses, Solano promised that the Venezuelan people would stop paying for the greed of foreign interests and that he would make the foreigners pay dearly for Venezuelan oil. Solano quickly restructured Venezuela's agreements with its oil partners, primarily with American oil company Universal Petroleum, and he turned Caracas into a military installation after violence broke out between the longtime rebel group the People's Liberation Army of Venezuela and the Venezuelan Army. The PLAV released a statement condemning Solano's coup and calling upon the international community to reject Solano's appeals for recognition.
Solano effectively became the dictator of the country, with Carmona serving as commander-in-chief of his powerful army. Carmona used the army to suppress dissent, although the PLAV put up stiff resistance in the rainforests of southern Venezuela. Solano's villa was taken over by Nilsson at the start of the violence, and Nilsson used the villa to create his own private military company which allied with factions such as Universal Petroleum, the PLAV, the pirate Balseros Crew, and, later, the United States and China during the Venezuelan Civil War. Solano was backed by North Korea, which shipped a nuclear weapon to Venezuela, but he faced opposition from the international community due to his illegitimate means of seizing power and his strong-handed approach to national leadership. The United States and China independently invaded Venezuela after a large oil rig exploded, threatening the world oil market. Solano's forces quickly lost ground as the Chinese and Americans divided Caracas, and as the rest of the country was taken over by the warring factions with help from Nilsson (who also captured Carmona, weakening Solano). Ultimately, Nilsson obtained a nuclear bunker buster from the CIA, and he used it to destroy Solano's massive bunker at Angel Falls in the Amazon. He fought his way past Solano's guards and reached Solano's helicopter as it attempted to evacuate Solano to a safe location; with the pilot dead, the helicopter spun out of control, and Nilsson shot Solano before jumping out. Solano's death did not end the civil war, as many regime loyalists in the military continued to fight against the invaders, and the Americans and Chinese continued to fight. However, the war eventually ended when the new US-friendly democratic government arranged for a peace deal with the PLAV and other factions and agreed to a better oil deal.