{"id":4528,"date":"2018-05-19T23:48:25","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T23:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noti-america.com\/site\/alemania\/?p=4528"},"modified":"2018-05-19T23:48:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T23:48:25","slug":"exclusive-in-run-up-to-venezuelan-vote-more-soldiers-dissent-and-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noti-america.com\/site\/principal\/2018\/05\/19\/exclusive-in-run-up-to-venezuelan-vote-more-soldiers-dissent-and-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: In run-up to Venezuelan vote, more soldiers dissent and desert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source\u00a0(Reuters)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
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CARACAS\/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela \u00a0– Arrests for rebellion and desertion are rising sharply in Venezuela\u2019s armed forces, a mainstay of President Nicolas Maduro\u2019s Socialist government, amid discontent within the ranks at food shortages and dwindling salaries, according to documents and interviews with army personnel.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Internal military documents reviewed by Reuters showed that the number of soldiers detained for treason, rebellion and desertion rose to 172 in the first four months of the year, up three-and-a-half times on the same period of 2017.<\/p>\n

Former military officials said the figures reflected a dramatic increase in the level of dissent within Venezuela\u2019s once-proud armed forces. In the whole of 2017, a total of 196 soldiers were arrested on similar charges, according to the same documents.<\/p>\n

As Venezuela prepares to vote on Sunday in presidential elections, which the opposition says have been rigged to consolidate Maduro\u2019s grip on power, the role of the security forces will be under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

More than 300,000 soldiers and police will stand watch at polling stations. But behind what will likely be impassive faces some soldiers are planning how to flee the country or fretting about how to feed their families on a minimum salary of just $2 a day, according to interviews with serving and former soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so demoralizing to open the fridge and see it empty of meat, fish, chicken, ham, cheese and other basics,\u201d said a 42-year-old National Guard sergeant major with more than 20 years of service, asking for his name not to be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I joined, I used to buy furniture for the house and clothes for the family with my Christmas bonus. Now it gets me three cartons of eggs and two kilos of sugar,\u201d he said in the border city of San Cristobal.<\/p>\n

The Defense Ministry and government did not respond to a request for comment. They say military dissent is isolated among a few individuals rather than being a systemic problem.<\/p>\n

FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE<\/h3>\n

During months of opposition protests last year, National Guard members were Maduro\u2019s first line of defense against protesters, firing tear gas and rubber bullets as rocks and Molotov cocktails were hurled toward them. At least 125 people, including some soldiers and police, were killed.<\/p>\n

But privately, some acknowledged even then being exhausted, impoverished, hungry and even sympathetic towards demonstrators.<\/p>\n

As Venezuela\u2019s economic crisis has dramatically worsened – with annual inflation hitting nearly 14,000 percent according to the opposition-controlled National Assembly – soldiers and police have joined the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans pouring into neighboring South American countries.<\/p>\n

Gerson Medina, a 36-year-old policeman from the border state of Tachira, said he left for Peru last year after political differences with his superiors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, security forces will continue to leave for Latin America and Europe because these elections are trying to demonstrate a false democracy in Venezuela,\u201d he said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

Maduro\u2019s government has said the elections are transparent and has accused the opposition of not participating solely because it knows it will lose.<\/p>\n

While there is no firm data on departures from Venezuela\u2019s 120,000-strong armed forces, interviews with serving and former soldiers, as well as internal military documents indicate hundreds if not more have left in the last year.<\/p>\n

Since former soldier Hugo Chavez swept to power in an election in 1998 amid popular anger with Venezuela\u2019s ruling elite, the military has played a leading role in the two-decade-old Socialist Revolution.<\/p>\n

Under his successor Maduro, senior military officers have assumed prominent and lucrative roles running several ministries as well as state oil company PDVSA and a state food distribution program.<\/p>\n

In public, the military top brass is standing by Maduro and ignoring appeals from the opposition to intervene to prevent what they say is a consolidation of dictatorship.<\/p>\n

However, Maduro\u2019s government refers frequently to foiled coup plots against it and it has quelled some small but high-profile rebellions within the security forces.<\/p>\n

Last year, rogue police officer Oscar Perez hijacked a helicopter and fired at government buildings in what he said was an action against a dictator. Perez was hunted down and killed by Venezuelan forces in January.<\/p>\n

A National Guard captain, Juan Carlos Caguaripano, early last year attacked a military base with a group of current and former military officials. He was captured soon after.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same thing is happening in the barracks as is happening in the slums: people are going hungry; they are suffering an overwhelming crisis,\u201d said Henri Falcon, a former soldier who has bucked the broad opposition boycott and is Maduro\u2019s primary opponent in the election.<\/p>\n

Maduro, expected to win on Sunday, has said that he is the victim of an \u201carmed insurrection\u201d by U.S.-backed opponents seeking to gain control of the OPEC country\u2019s oil wealth.<\/p>\n

MILITARY OUSTER<\/h3>\n

In August, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military intervention in Venezuela – a move that would likely prove unpopular with neighboring governments in a region wary of American intervention.<\/p>\n

However, in February, then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested the Venezuelan military might decide to oust Maduro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether he meant to or not, Tillerson was signaling U.S. pre-acceptance of a military coup to remove Maduro,\u201d said a former senior CIA official speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the biggest \u2018U.S.-supported\u2019 actions were not done by people we hired and trained for the task. They were done by fence-sitters who, once they saw we would approve, made their move,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

Some investors in recent weeks have even bought Venezuela\u2019s defaulted debt on speculation that Maduro\u2019s reelection could prompt the military to intervene to prevent economic collapse.<\/p>\n

Venezuela is no stranger to military coups.<\/p>\n

Then-paratrooper Chavez attempted to seize power militarily in 1992 though failed. It was soon after that attempt that he and Maduro became close.<\/p>\n

A decade later, as president, Chavez was himself ousted from power for a couple of days by military officers and business leaders.<\/p>\n

Herbert Garcia, a former senior army general and government minister who split with Maduro and now lives in the United States, said a successful uprising did not look imminent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn order for a military coup to succeed, political coordination with a strong, credible and united opposition must exist. It doesn\u2019t,\u201d he told Reuters, referring to the country\u2019s fragmented political opposition.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some soldiers in Venezuela admit their unhappiness but want to stick around in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot be happy with this situation, I love my country and I\u2019m not leaving,\u201d said one National Guard soldier, with more than a decade of service, standing at a command post in Tachira. \u201cI\u2019ll be here to turn off the light when everyone has gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source\u00a0(Reuters) CARACAS\/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela \u00a0– Arrests for rebellion and desertion are rising sharply in Venezuela\u2019s armed forces, a mainstay of President Nicolas Maduro\u2019s Socialist government, amid discontent within the ranks at food shortages and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10219548024599422_1632221337088128":"","twitter_242054905_242054905":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internacionales","category-politica","category-venezuela"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive: In run-up to Venezuelan vote, more soldiers dissent and desert - 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