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'Francisco Javier Arias Cárdenas' (born on November 20, 1950 in San Cristóbal, Táchira) is a Venezuelan politician and career military officer. He is currently Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations.
He graduated from the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas, the Universidad de Los Andes in Mérida, and the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá, Colombia.
Together with Hugo Chávez, Arias led a coup attempt against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez on February 4, 1992. Arias was in charge of the battalion that took over the city of Maracaibo. Despite the success of Arias' battalion, the coup failed when Chávez surrendered to the government. Arias was detained and imprisoned until 1994, when he was pardoned by Rafael Caldera.
In 1995, Arias ran for governor of Zulia State, whose capital is Maracaibo. When preliminary results showed the candidate of Acción Democrática winning, people rioted. Things returned to normal later the same day after a final recount of the votes showed Arias as the winner of the election. In 1998, Arias supported Chávez in his bid for the presidency, while he ran again for the governorship of Zulia. Both won their respective elections. Over time, Arias became critical of Chávez' policies and actions. In 2000, as result of new presidential elections being called following the approval of a new constitution, Arias contested the election against Chávez, but lost. Despite his loss, Arias remained in politics at the head of his newly formed political party, Partido Unión.
Arias has called Chávez the head of a "gang of criminals" and in April 2002 held President Chávez personally responsible for the killings that occurred on April 11, 2002. He referred to Chávez in a televised interview as a "murderer," "paranoid," "possessed," who had to be held accountable for ordering snipers to fire on protesting crowds. He repeated that Chávez could not be supported "for one more second....a murdering president stained with the blood of the Venezuelan people."
On February 4, 2006, Chávez announced that Arias would be rejoining his government. On May 1, 2006, Arias was designated Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations.