Venezuela’s Armed Forces close ranks with Maduro: ‘The regime is supported by the military’

The military leadership has closed ranks with Nicolás Maduro following accusations of fraud in the July 28 presidential elections. While the opposition and the international community are demanding that the National Electoral Council (CNE) — controlled by the ruling power — present the voter tally sheets confirming Maduro’s victory over the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, the high command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) have sworn “absolute loyalty” to the president.

The support of the military is disputed between the government and the opposition, which, led by María Corina Machado, has asked the FANB and police forces not to repress the protests against the suspected election fraud. The opposition has also called on the forces to accept the results shown in the copies of the more than 24,000 tally sheets they have collected, equivalent to 81.7% of the total. According to the opposition count, González Urrutia obtained 67% of the votes, compared to 30% for Maduro.

Following calls from the opposition, Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office — also controlled by the ruling Chavista party — opened a criminal investigation against Machado and González for “inciting” military and police officers to disobey the law. The high command of the FANB has also accused the “ultra-right” of plotting a coup in the country.

For retired army general Antonio Rivero, who is in exile, the high command shares the same interests as Maduro, which makes them inseparable. “The regime is supported by the armed forces, especially its leadership, which throughout these decades of Chavismo has consolidated its power. Although it is true that Maduro has given them more positions in the public administration — always supervised by the Defense Ministry — and more high-ranking promotions, with marked privileges, power arose from the government of Hugo Chávez. It was he who created the Integral Defense Regions [REDI], which gave them not only military responsibility, but political responsibility at the level of governorships. From there, and after a series of legal reforms and perks, these high positions were strengthened,” he says.

When Maduro took power in 2013, he handed over control of the country’s food, foreign currency and distribution of raw materials to the military. Today, even the administration of the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is in the hands of an army colonel. Companies linked to the Defense Ministry, a portfolio by Vladimir Padrino López for a decade, have joined the ranks of the new power brokers. Padrino López has been on the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanction list since 2018.

An investigation by the civil organization Control Ciudadano (Citizen Control), headed by lawyer Rocío San Miguel — who is currently detained by the Chavistas on charges of espionage —, revealed the creation of around 50 decentralized bodies, entities, state companies, autonomous institutes and state foundations in the midst of Venezuela’s economic and humanitarian crisis.

Guillermo Beltran, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan Air Force, says military promotions are another way to build support. The high command had 200 members in the late 1990s when Chávez came to power, and today it has about 2,000. A week ago, Maduro authorized the promotion of 17 officers to the rank of major general and admiral, amid the international criticism of the crackdown on opposition protesters.

Under Chávez, arms imports increased, especially since 2007, at the height of the oil price boom, Venezuela’s main source of foreign currency. In 2013, arms purchases from abroad reached $900 million, a record high, according to the database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. With the economic crisis, that figure has dropped.

In 2006, Venezuela was placed under an arms embargo imposed by the United States, which accused the Chávez government of not cooperating in the fight against terrorism. Caracas changed suppliers and concentrated on Russia and China. According to a 2021 report by Citizen Control, the budgets allocated to these purchases were not centralized in the Defense Ministry, but by different public administration entities that were not subject to any public audit.

In the barracks

According to retired general Rivero, the soldiers barracks do not agree with the election results presented by the CNE, but he says that they will not express their opinion for fear of being reprimanded by their superiors. “The officers who guarded the Plan República during the presidential elections witnessed González’s victory [because they were there during the issuance of the voting records after the polls closed]. On average, there are about 100,000 citizens in the FANB who live in deplorable conditions. They are the ones who are in a barracks and do not receive any privileges. They are the ones who do not feel safe in the regime.”

But military leaders are trying to present a different image. For the past week, General Domingo Hernández Lárez, head of the Strategic Operational Command of the FANB (an agency created by Chávez for the operational integration of military components), has been posting almost daily messages about his “absolute loyalty and subordination” to Maduro. “The FANB is a guarantee of peace!” reads one of the latest messages on X, a social media platform that was blocked for 10 days on orders of the Maduro government.

Retired military officers consulted by EL PAÍS agree that, in addition to Hernández and Padrino López, one of the most influential figures within the FANB is Diosdado Cabello, the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and former colleague of Chávez.

“Through him, many officers achieved promotions and important positions that are still active,” Rivero says about Cabello. “It is an influence that Padrino himself has not been able to overcome and is part of the differences” seen within Chavismo.

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