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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Venezuelan Military Fades Away |
| 2006-05-11 |
| May 11, 2006: Despite Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez' defense spending spree, fueled by soaring oil prices, the Venezuelan Armed Force appear to be deteriorating at a rapid rate. The key problems for the Armed Forces are that Chavez' money is not going to the regular forces. Most of the money is being spent to train and equip his "Bolivarian Militia," which is expected to eventually number some two million personnel for irregular operations and regime protection. A secondary problem is that Chavez is insisting that the regular armed forces adopt "Bolivarian" principles of strategy and tactics, though these are pretty hazily defined and have never actually been subject to field tests. Reportedly fewer than half the ships in the Navy are able to get underway, and none are combat ready by any measure. When asked by Brazil to take part in a combined exercise this coming September, the Venezuelan Navy replied that it would be unable to do so due to equipment and maintenance shortfalls, and a lack of fuel. While Air Force readiness appears to be better (Chavez is an Air Force man), its ability to conduct more than token operations is debatable. Even the Coast Guard is feeling the pinch, and has had to lay up some vessels and close some bases, which is having a deleterious effect on anti-drug and anti-smuggling operations. On the ground, the best troops are a handful of battalions of "special operations" personnel and some of the marine battalions. The bulk of the Army and Marines may retain some flexibility, and would probably be able to conduct defensive operations against convention forces or support guerrilla operations. The new Bolivarian Militia is likely to be useless. Meanwhile, in a surprisingly public admission of a problem, the Inspector General of the Armed Forces, Major General. Guillermo Rangel, issued a report that claimed about $8 million was disappearing each month through graft, with senior officers taking the pay for "phantom soldiers," bogus procurement contracts, and the like. Rangel's report actually named Army Commander in Chief Raúl Baduel as one of the culprits, alleging that Baduel himself is raking off some $3 million a month himself. Both Rangel and Baduel are staunch Chevez supporters, and Rangel's report may be a political move Rangel is rumored to want the post of Army chief-of-staff. Chavez appears to have some serious attention span issues. When faced with an issue that demands a hard decision, and quickly, Chavez tends to charge off to deal with another, often unrelated, matter. For example, instead of taking care of serious problems with military readiness, Chavez has been meddling in Peru's presidential elections. The first round, in January, resulted in the need for a run-off between leftist Ollanta Humala and the more conservative Alan GarcÃa scheduled for early June. Already condemned by many political and cultural figures in Peru for his open backing of Humala during the January balloting, Chavez recently upped his rhetoric, even threatening to break diplomatic relations with Peru should GarcÃa win. As a result, many prominent leftist Peruvians have been telling him to mind his own business, and Humala has publicly distanced himself from any association with Chavez. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 #11 Mike - Heh.™ :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-05-11 17:36 |
| #11 ...Hugo, remember the DigBats. Noriega put together his own private thug army, let the Panamanian military atrphy except for a few select (read 'loyal')units, then started harassing US companies, US military personnel (including at LEAST one sexual assault on a military spouse)and US civilians. All the while, he is blaming all of Panama's problems on the US and suggesting that he might have to take action. He told the deputy commander of the Panama Defense Forces, "I've got Bush by the balls." Then the dumb son-of-a-bi*ch stood up, waved a machete, and declared war on the US. The Dignity Batallions - organized groups of street toughs whose sole job was to keep the population under control - melted away and stayed there when faced with well-trained and well-armed men who feared nothing. Noriega's spending the rest of his life in a very quiet little cell in Florida. He may be out in '07, but I wouldn't count on it. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-05-11 13:33 |
| #10 Major General. Guillermo |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-11 13:30 |
| #9 Chavez cant even put together an order for 100,000 AK's, how is he going to get 2 million? And for that matter, how many rounds does a person have to fire off to become even slightly proficient with a rifle? 1,000, at least? Thats 2 billion rounds of ammo just to train them, and then you will want them to have a few rounds to fight with, so what? Sounds like a crazy pipe dream to me. |
| Posted by: Phetle Clert8457 2006-05-11 13:21 |
| #8 These people are making a big mistake by not killing this asshole right now. In fact, why don't we ? Hey Bushy, do a Reagan on his ass....bombs in the night, raiders in the sky, people in the compound will die, die, die. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-05-11 12:56 |
| #7 I'm thinking large amphib exercises off the Venezuelan coast annually around harvest time. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-05-11 12:29 |
| #6 "...When faced with an issue that demands a hard decision, and quickly, Chavez tends to charge off to deal with another," This is a text book example of the Peter Principle. Chavez has obviously risen to his level of incompetence (and will take the whole country down with him). |
| Posted by: AlanC 2006-05-11 12:19 |
| #5 2nd (emergency) route from Caraccas to the airport/coast is closed due to landslides. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-11 12:07 |
| #4 General Rangel???? Any relation to our Rangel? Political philosophy's the same. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2006-05-11 12:02 |
| #3 Let's hope that FARC recognizes the vast new oil rich market to its east. That should put Yugo over the edge. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-05-11 11:04 |
| #2 "...with senior officers taking the pay for "phantom soldiers," bogus procurement contracts, and the like. It's an old story... |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-05-11 10:33 |
| #1 "...train and equip his "Bolivarian Militia," which is expected to eventually number some two million personnel for irregular operations and regime protection." These are meant to keep the rioting population down; always the biggest problem for a dictator... |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2006-05-11 10:05 |