Alejandro Andrade (born 2 August 1964) is a former

Venezuelan Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

military officer and politician. A 1987 graduate of the

Military Academy of Venezuela The Military Academy of the Bolivarian Army (in Spanish ''Academia Militar del Ejército Bolivariano''), historically known as the Military Academy of Venezuela, is an academy to train members of the officer corps of the National Army of the Boli ...

, he was appointed as minister of finance and president of Banfoandes under the administration of the then president,

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

. Andrade, a member of Venezuela's ''

boliburguesía Bolibourgeoisie (a portmanteau of the words Bolivarian and bourgeoisie) or Bolichicos (English: Boliboys) are terms describing the new bourgeois created by the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez and ''Chavismo'', made up of people who became ...

'', he received a ten-year sentence inn the USA for money laundering in 2018.

Early life

Andrade was born in the parish of Coche, located southwest of

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

. In 1964, he graduated from the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences and participated in the 1992 coup d'état attempts alongside then Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez. During Chávez's 1998 presidential campaign, Andrade acted as his personal bodyguard and secretary. After being elected president, Chávez appointed Andrade to be his private secretary. He was involved in numerous bureaucratic positions, all related to the finance and economical sectors since then until his relocation to the United States. In the United States, Andrade resided in a home on an estate in

Wellington, Florida Wellington is a village just west of West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County and north of Miami. As of 2019, the city had a population of 65,398 according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, making it the most populous village in the state. It is the ...

, his largest of several properties.

Imprisonment

In December 2017, Andrade pleaded guilty to receiving more than a billion dollars from Raúl Gorrín, president of Globovisión channel, and others in exchange for using his position as minister of finance to adjudicate transactions in foreign exchange. On 19 February 2019, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for various money laundering crimes, the biggest being a $2.4 billion money scheme. Andrade surrendered to authorities in the US on 25 February 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrade, Alejandro 1964 births Bolivarian Military University of Venezuela alumni Bank presidents and chief executive officers United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians Government ministers of Venezuela Living people Venezuelan people imprisoned abroad Bodyguards People of the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts Venezuelan politicians convicted of corruption Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 1999