Venezuelan National Guard

In 1934, the Defense Minister General in Chief Eleazar López Contreras, busy with the preparations for his own presidency and in his duty of creating and expanding the national army and navy, realized the long need of public security in a time of civil unrest under President Juan Vicente Gómez, in their meetings during that year. In the middle of the year, he had conversations with Venezuelan diplomat Rufino Blanco Fombona, who suggested forming a national gendarmerie modeled on the successes of the Spanish Civil Guard and on the Peruvian Civil Guard, as well as the various other police forces in South America.

Thus the idea of forming the National Guard was born.

On August 31, 1934, the Ministry of War and Navy Resolution no. 188 created the Technical Services School, located in Fort Paez, Maracay. The school trained technical service personnel in military technologies and public security. Its Special Classes course arrived the next year.

Upon the death of General Gomez on December 17, 1935, Lopez Contreas became President. The next year, as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, he ordered the raising of a National Frontier Police to protect the national borders and raised mounted security units to protect the peace in the Venezuelan plains. In that same year, a Spanish military mission arrived to help form and train a fully national police force, led by Captain Cecillo Suarez of the Civil Guard. The Technical Services School's Special Classes, by that year, moved to Caracas, became independent and on September 16, 1935, was disbanded. The next day a Presidential decree ordered the formation of the Public Security Agents Formation School. It opened in Villa Zolia, Caracas on October 28 the same year, with Captain Suarez as its principal guest. His speech implied the basic principles of the future national police force: As "sentinels of the people", a part of the armed forces as a public order and security service, maintaining the law and order, defending social lives and to become the "armed shoulder of the Executive Power" and as an intervening force in times of disorder.

On August 4, 1937, the National Guard was raised via a Presidential Decree of President Eleazar López Contreras, published in the Official Gazette. The presidential decree divided the National Guard into the National Guard of the Interior (subdivided into the Highway, Rural, Health, and Urban Services) and the Frontier National Guard, and set its joint command structure under the Ministries of War and Navy and of the Interior and Justice, absorbing into the new service the personnel of the National Frontier Police. As a national police force, it was also mandated to have its own investigations service as well. As a result, the PSAFS became first the National Police Academy and later the National Public Security Academy. On its first graduation on October 12, 1937, Sgt. Martin Torres gave an emotional address to his fellow graduates and to the honorary guests, thanking the Government and the Spanish military mission for forming the new service. The Mission organized the new service until 1941 and thus completed the Charter of the National Guard (based on the Charter of the Civil Guard), with its motto, "Honor is Its Emblem" (based on the Spanish Civil Guard motto). The first National Guard station opened in Tachira on December 6 the same year.

In 1938, Congress passed the National Security Service Law. On November 8, Major Francisco de Paula Angarita Arvelo, Venezuelan Army, was appointed the first Commanding General of the National Guard, thus the National Guard became an independent arm of the Army. In 1940 the first officer training course was commenced. The service was hit hard by a 1941 reduction but debuted, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, the Military and Police Intelligence Training courses, in 1944. In the same year, via General Orders 16 on April 13 that same year, its joint command structure and duties were amended and the service was formed into a brigade-sized formation.

In 1945, the service defended the government of President Isaias Medina Angarita against a coup. In the aftermath, now Lieutenant Torres assumed the leadership of the National Guard becoming the first National Guard officer to become the commanding general, and the service adopted the green uniforms of the Venezuelan Army, abandoning its earlier blue uniforms. Several of the officers of the service had earlier served in the Army before, and in the earlier days, the officer corps was made up of Army officers seconded into the service.

In 1946, it became the Armed Forces of Cooperation. The National Guard Academy and the National Guardsmen Formation School were both created that year. The National Guard held its first officers' graduation in 1947 at its Villa Zolia campus.

A Chilean military mission led by the Carabineros de Chile helped reorganize the National Guard in the same year. Partly as a result it later expanded its responsibilities in the 1950s to include penitentiary protection and security, maritime security, forestry protection, and highway patrol duties as well as security in the tourism sector and even in dog handling. Its present formation of 12 regional commands dates from 1950 when the 1st Regional Command was raised. In the late 1970s, the Guard established its own air arm.

Following the Bolivarian Revolution, the Venezuelan National Guard was renamed the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela (GNB).

Since then, the GNB have cooperated with paramilitaries known as colectivos within the country.[1]

• Bell 206 JetRanger

In 1993, the term Cartel de los Soles or Cartel of the Suns was first used when allegations of two National Guard generals, who wore emblems that looked like suns on their uniforms, were investigated for drug trafficking crimes.[13] The term currently describes high-ranking members of the Venezuelan armed forces, including the National Guard, who are involved in drug trade.[13] Even lower ranking National Guardsmen compete for positions at border checkpoints so they can be paid bribes for "illicit trade", though a large portion of bribes go to their superiors.[14] The corrupt officials of The Sun Cartel traffic drugs from Colombia to Venezuela where they are shipped internationally.[15] It has been alleged that the National Guard had worked with the FARC with drug trade.[16]

In September 2013, an incident allegedly linked to Cartel of the Suns and involving men from the Venezuelan National Guard who placed 31 suitcases containing 1.3 tons of cocaine on a Paris flight astonished French authorities as it was the largest seizure of cocaine recorded in mainland France.[17][18] On 15 February 2014, a commander for the Venezuelan National Guard was stopped while driving to Valencia with his family and was arrested for having 554 kilos of cocaine in his possession.[19]

Venezuelan National Guardsman holding a protester in a headlock.

The National Guard has used tear gas and rubber bullets on anti-government demonstrators during the 2010s protests in the crisis in Venezuela,[20] during which 9 members of the National Guard have been killed.[21] There are reports alleging that the Venezuelan National Guard has worked with pro-Maduro groups, called "colectivos" while dispersing protesters.[22][23][24][25] The National Guard allegedly protected the Tupamaro colectivo that were "armed with guns, motorcycles and shooting protesters".[26][27]

Human Rights Watch reports that "many victims and family members we spoke with said they believed they might face reprisals if they reported abused by police, guardsmen, or armed pro-government gangs."[22] It also reported that a man attempting to leave a protest was shot with rubber bullets, beaten and then shot again in the groin by guardsmen. Another man was detained, shot repeatedly with rubber bullets, beaten with rifles and helmets by three National Guardsman, and was asked "Who's your president?".[22] NTN24 reported from a lawyer that National Guardsmen and individuals with "Cuban accents" in Mérida forced three arrested adolescents to confess to crimes they did not commit and then the adolescents "kneeled and were forced to raise their arms then shot with buckshot throughout their body" during an alleged "target practice".[28] In Valencia, protesters were dispersed by the National Guard in El Trigál, where four students (three men and one woman) were attacked inside of a car while trying to leave the perimeter;[29] the three men were imprisoned and one of them was allegedly sodomized by one of the officers with a rifle.[30]

Following alleged human rights violations by the Venezuelan National Guard during the protests, President Barack Obama used powers granted from the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 and ordered the United States Department of the Treasury to freeze assets and property of former leader of the National Guard, Antonio José Benavides Torres, and former General Commander Justo José Noguera Pietri.[31]

Additional sanctions were added on 29 August 2017 by President Donald J. Trump against the Venezuelan Government and Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), which is currently being run by Major Manuel Quevedo. These additional sanctions were due to the continuous allegations of public corruption, the persecution of violence against political opponents, as well as the establishment of what the United States considers the illegitimate Constituent Assembly. This executive order prohibits transactions made by a citizen of the United States or within the United States from the following; dealing new debt from PDVSA older than 90 days; dealing new debt or new equity older than 30 days from the Government of Venezuela (PDVSA not included); and the remittance of payments or distribution of profits to any individual, subgroup, corporation, or persons owned or controlled by the Government of Venezuela.[32]

In order for the United States to continue addressing Venezuela's ongoing national emergency listed in Executive Order 13692, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13827 on 19 March 2018. This sanction is to prohibit all transactions issued by a United States Citizen or within the United States via digital currency, digital coin, or digital token to, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after 9 January 2018. This comes after President Nicolas Maduro announced the creation of a new digital currency, known as "Petro".[33][34]

Due to the continuous oppression against their own Venezuelan citizens, the worsening economic crisis, and corruption, the United States President signed Executive Order 13835 on 21 May 2018. This sanction prohibits the purchase of debt owed to the Government of Venezuela and/or Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which includes money pledged as collateral made after the effective date of this Executive Order.[35][36]

In conjunction with Executive Orders 13692 and 13835, the United States President signed Executive Order 13692 sanctioning the gold sector, essentially targeting corruption as well as those who have contributed to the crumbling infrastructure and exploitation of natural resources (PDVSA). This means that the United States citizens are prohibited from dealing with anyone having to do with the corruption and false transactions in the Venezuelan gold.[37][38]

In 2004 the late President Hugo Chávez turned over the food industry to the Venezuelan Military and created what is now the Food Ministry. The Food Ministry was designed to create domestic farming, food factories and distributions centers, but after many years of neglect and the price of oil collapse of 2014, the domestic production dried up and the government could no longer afford to import what the country needed.

In order for imported goods to be accepted into Venezuela, the GNB requires bribes. This will ensure that the shipment is accepted and that the container is unloaded from the ship. Another payoff is needed to cover the cost to load the truck which will then transport the goods. If there are no incentives offered, any food or goods will sit to rot. The GNB has been accused of not only letting food rot, then burying the evidence, but also reselling food and merchandise kept at the port of entry for their own profit. They will sell to citizens and business owners who can afford it.[39][40]

More than drug trafficking, the GNB has been accused of helping gangs and cartels smuggle things such as fuel, food, and medicine between Colombia and Venezuela. Motorcycles known as “moscas” help guide state-owned PDVSA trucks and other similar vehicles through deserted trails to illegally sell gasoline and other basic goods across the border. A border which is secured by the GNB on the Venezuelan side, and by the Colombian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army on the Colombian side. Those gangs and cartels involved in the smuggling of these materials into Venezuela are said to pay a high incentive to the military or Guajiros (Venezuelan and Colombian Indian tribes) to get through private and isolated trails along the border successfully.[41]

In 2016, Maduro paved way for what was originally the idea of the late President Hugo Chávez, by opening up the Orinoco Mining Arc (Arco Minero del Orinoco), over 170,000 squared kilometers of Venezuelan Amazon to mine. The Orinoco Mining Arc started by giving mining access to countries like China, Russia, Canada, South Africa, the Republic of Congo and Australia. He then created CAMIMPEG, which is Venezuela's military-run oil and mining company. Once Maduro felt that the business mining legitimacy was established, those countries that once had access were pushed out to make way for the military. Maduro then created the “Economic Military Zone” to help protect the mining area, leaving room for the Military to participate in not only the mining but to exploit the grounds. Some miners state that the GNB brought a sense of tranquility to the region, others claim that the GNB's power and control over both illegal and legal mining have become extremely dangerous to the country and to those seeking a better life.[42][43]

Since opening up the Orinoco Mining Arc, it has not only affected the deforestation of the Amazon but has also unleashed diseases such as malaria and deaths from military and gang violence. One of the most recent massacres happened on 10 February 2018, in which 18 miners lost their lives. One of those killed was a legal mine operator, Angelis Rodriguez Cuevas. Cuevas had been negotiating to hand over her territory with the Venezuelan government when the GNB raided her mine, killing her and 17 others a few days later. This is not the first time that the GNB has clashed with miners over the control of gold mines. Since the creation of the Orinoco Mining Arc by Nicolas Maduro, there have been at least four massacres in towns like Tumeremo and El Callao, located in the state of Bolivar. The military responded by stating that the miners were suspected criminals, to which they recovered several different types of guns, rifles and grenades. The Government of Venezuela opened up an investigation against the military, but nothing has come about.[44]

While the Venezuelan Government receives a cut from the mining business, most of that gold is said to be smuggled out of the country by the GNB through Colombia and the Caribbean island for an even bigger profit. It is said that about 90 percent of Venezuelan gold is produced illegally, however, the Venezuelan Government denies these claims.[45]