Meet the Rambo of Venezuela

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The Wall Street Journal has a colorful profile of Angel Vivas, a retired general who has become something of a Venezuelan folk hero — albeit a heavily armed one — for standing up to President Nicolas Maduro, who is in the midst of trying to squelch widespread protests sparked by the country's flailing economy and his government's authoritarian tendencies.

Earlier this week, security forces were dispatched to Vivas' home in Caracas to arrest the 57-year-old for allegedly inciting the demonstrators, only to be met by a defiant, flak-jacket-clad Vivas wielding a semiautomatic rifle and a pistol. Maduro's forces, facing both the imposing Vivas and a decidedly pro-Vivas crowd, prudently decided to back down, leading to a new sobriquet for the retired general: Rambo.

"He's a one-man rebellion," one observer told the Journal. If that isn't Rambo-esque then I don't know what is.