Rafael de Nogales

Rafael de Nogales Mendéz as an Ottoman officer

Rafael de Nogales Méndez (real Rafael Inchauspe Méndez ; born October 14, 1879 in San Cristobal , Táchira ; † July 10, 1937 in Panama City ) was a Venezuelan adventurer, mercenary and writer.

Life

Rafael de Nogales was born in San Cristobal, a city in the Venezuelan Andes . On his father's side he came from the Venezuelan freedom hero Pedro Luis de Inchauspe, on his mother's side from the conquistador Diego de Méndez. At an early age, Nogales left his homeland, was educated in Germany and Belgium, where he graduated from the military academy . At the age of eighteen he joined the Spanish army as a lieutenant, took part in the war against the United States in Cuba and received his first wound at Santiago de Cuba . In 1901 Nogales joined the Venezuelan army, but soon had to leave the country because of his opposition to President Castro . His thirst for adventure drove him far and wide, in China he got caught up in an espionage affair shortly before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05), a year later Nogales tried his hand at hunting and trapping in Alaska and as a whaler in the Arctic Ocean .

As a cowboy in Arizona he rounded up herds of cattle, in Nevada he dug for gold. In revolutionary Mexico , Nogales rode on the side of the insurgents, returned to Venezuela to take part in the fight against President Gómez . He spent almost two years as a rebel against the central government in the Venezuelan Llanos , a wild, impassable area on the border with Colombia. Inadequate preparation and lack of support led to the gradual end of the uprising. In the Caribbean, Nogales was surprised by the outbreak of World War I in the autumn of 1914 and decided to take part on the side of Belgium. After many unsuccessful attempts to find appropriate accommodation in one of the Entente armies, Nogales entered the service of the Ottoman Empire in December 1914 . In Constantinople he met with the Turkish Minister of War Enver Pascha and high German officers. Rafael de Nogales served as a Turkish officer for four years, fighting against the Allied powers in Mesopotamia and Palestine . Rafael de Nogales commanded the withdrawal of a Turkish division in 1917 during the English advance into Jerusalem . Shortly before the end of the war, he was reassigned to Constantinople because of his Venezuelan nationality. He was highly decorated by the Sultan, but removed in full honor (to avoid diplomatic entanglements) as a division general from the Turkish army.

Nogales could not return to Venezuela, he traveled through Central America, supported the Venezuelan insurgents and settled in Colombia. Secluded in the Andes, Nogales put his experiences during the First World War on paper. “Cuatro años bajo la Media Luna” (Eng. Four Years Under the Crescent), that was the original Spanish title, was translated into several languages ​​in 1924 and was a great journalistic success. In the mid-1920s, Nogales was in Nicaragua, actively supporting the rebels and becoming friends with the Nicaraguan freedom fighter Sandino . In the 1930s, Nogales continued his struggle with the pen, his autobiography: "Memoirs of a Soldier of Fortune" was published in New York in 1932. In Panama he dealt with overturning plans in his native Venezuela and prepared his return. A stroke ended the life of 58-year-old Rafael de Nogales in Panama City on July 10, 1937.

swell

• Rafael de Nogales: Four years under the crescent. Memories from the world wars. Berlin 1925.
• Rafael de Nogales: The Looting of Nicaragua. New York 1932.
• Rafael de Nogales: Memoirs of a Soldier of Fortune, New York 1932.

Web links

Commons : Rafael de Nogales Méndez  - Collection of images, videos and audio files