High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rafael Inchauspe Méndez, known as Rafael de Nogales Méndez (San Cristóba,Táchira, October 14, 1879 - Panama City, July 10, 1936) was a Venezuelan military mercenary and writer. De Nogales studied in Germany, Belgium and Spain, and spoke various languages fluently. He took part in several conflicts in the last part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th: in 1898 in the Spanish-American War; in 1902 in the Revolución Libertadora of Venezuela; in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War. He returned to Venezuela in 1908, after the military coup of Juan Vicente Gómez that overthrew the dictator Cipriano Castro. Even so, he went back to exile after making himself an enemy of the new president.