First Published: 31st of October, 2020
Last updated: October 31, 2020 at 12:25 pmFearing a military invasion from the United States, Nicolas Maduro seeks to form a Military Council with Iran, China, Russia and Cuba for mutual cooperation in military defense.
For Colonel (Av) Alfonso Zambrano of the Venezuelan armed forces, the Military Council is a “contradiction.”
“How is the Venezuelan weapons system going to be more independent if it is going to depend on foreign countries? Russia, China, Iran and Cuba do not give a stitch without a thimble, any support to the Government, not to the armed forces, they are going to charge more than enough: with the Venezuelan minerals or perhaps, that they are allowed a military base of those countries in the Venezuelan territory to be closer to the United States. It will be interesting to see if those of the north will allow it, although to win Biden, the thing can be possible.”
Colonel alfonso zambran – venezuelan armed forces
“As for the other question, to be honest, I don’t think our armed forces are prepared to resist any attack. The operational readiness is on the ground where they are well prepared is to ‘take care’ of the gasoline pumps, ‘check’ the trucks that transport vegetables from the Andes to Caracas and other parts of the country.
“How do you explain that Russian soldiers wearing the uniforms of Venezuelan soldiers are on the borders with Colombia and Brazil? That is a mission that would be best suited to our soldiers if they are well trained,” retired Colonel Zambrano concludes.
Army General Gonzalo García Ordóñez, who held all positions in the command line from platoon to Unified Command, considers that “the Nicolás Maduro regime made Venezuela a piece on the systems confrontation board, as has been with Cuba in recent decades, as is Nicaragua and now Bolivia which is back on track. Our country does not have the capacity to have independent weapons systems of its own. The creation of the Military Council appears to be a General Staff that will displace the National Security and Defense Council (Conasede) to keep the presence, activity and support of Russia, China, Cuba and Iran in military matters away from public opinion. Nothing is free.”
Venezuelan Unpreparedness
Regarding the possibility of an American attack, a Venezuelan military personnel responded: I do not know how the military posts on the border are organized and equipped, nor how many attacks can be successfully faced simultaneously.”
No-conflict Major General (Ex) Hebert Josue García Plaza, who was Deputy Minister of Services of the Ministry of Defense, being in charge of the General Directorates of Companies and Services, Health, Arms and Explosives, Maintenance and Military Enlistment, says that “by creating a mixture of different doctrines and different teams, such as the Chinese and the Russians and Iranians, what he is going to precipitate is a great confusion for the soldiers who will be responsible for fighting the war on the ground.
“When he affirms that he will have the help of Russia, China and Iran, he shows that what he, Nicolás Maduro, intends to achieve is by no means independence of the weapons systems, what he seeks is to depend even more on the military doctrine of those countries, taking into account consideration of the common enemy: the US. What it intends is the dependence on a military doctrine and a system of weapons different from the European and North American one that the Venezuelan Armed Forces have traditionally used.”
Like many of the officers interviewed, he agrees that “the Armed Forces are not prepared to respond to any kind of military conflict, because unfortunately they do not carry out military exercises, neither by cadres nor collectives, where they can coordinate the use of the different maneuvering units, be it artillery, infantry or armored vehicles, with additional elements such as the Militia.”
“One of the indicators is that the communications, command and control elements are totally inoperative. There is no way to communicate between the different maneuvering units or units involved. There are no logistical means to maintain military operations for a long time. There is not even the logistical strength to carry out small-scale military exercises.”
“Imagine how complex it is to coordinate a military maneuver or operation involving 100,000 men in a maneuvering space of hundreds of square kilometers with different types of weapons and without having the possibility of communicating and coordinating. If to this you add the lack of individual and collective training, the result is, without a doubt, a FANB (Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana) incapable of carrying out military operations,” says Major General García Plaza.
In his opinion, “what further aggravated the problem of coordination between the maneuvering units is the creation of the REDI (Strategic Region of Integral Defense) and ZODI (Operational Zone of Integral Defense), because they are components responsible for equipping and training the personnel and now they are not doing it.
“Military units were left in limbo as to who prepares and trains tactical units and superior units for a conflict. The senior official highlights that “intelligence, and even more counterintelligence, have been strengthened, but more has been used for political persecution, whether civil or military.”
“In Venezuela, the protocols of action that violate the unity of command are violated and for this reason, for example, in the Los Andes Region, instead of being the commander of the Region who has the voice and command of the military units to act in the region, the ‘protector’ Freddy Bernal has it. In the supposed mercenary invasion (Operation Gedeón, Macuto), the spokesperson was Diosdado Cabello through the Ministry of the Interior and Justice when it was supposed to have been the Armed Forces. It was not the FANB, it was police forces,” concludes the MG García Plaza.
Cannibalization
An officer who asked not to be identified said that the creation of the Military Council “is only the perfect excuse to justify, in some way, the interference of Russia, China, Iran and Cuba in Venezuelan territory using, for this, the so-called technological cooperation agreements, which lack legality due to their non-approval by the National Assembly.”
Furthermore, “the deterioration of the entire Weapon System due to the non-application of preventive maintenance has led to ‘cannibalization:’ extracting parts of one piece of equipment to fix or put another into operation.”
He explains that the limited technology that Venezuela currently has is a limitation for technological independence, “which also applies to the Weapons System. During these 20 years, in the country, the digital divide has increased getting closer and closer to the undeveloped countries; there is a large acquisition of war material, but without having performed preventive maintenance on the existing one.”
Finally, he said that “currently the Armed Forces has entered into its ranks a large number of personnel who are not qualified and without preparation for this type of conflict. There is no evidence of ‘esprit de corps’ (solidarity-unity). Further, they are given a salary that does not cover their basic needs since they are the lowest paid in Latin America. “There is an abysmal difference with respect to their peers and, at the arms level, there is no response capacity.”